6-run 1st inning spurs White Sox to 9-5 win

[July 19, 2008]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Jermaine Dye's two-run single highlighted a six-run first inning that featured seven Chicago hits and the White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 9-5 on Friday night.

Dye went 3-for-4 with a walk, Carlos Quentin homered and Mark Buehrle pitched seven innings to get the win for the AL Central leaders in their first game after the All-Star break.

Buehrle (7-8) allowed four hits, including a long three-run homer to Billy Butler that got Kansas City within 7-4 in the sixth. But the White Sox added two runs against the Royals' bullpen and maintained their 1 1/2-game lead over Minnesota.

The White Sox had 22 hits Sunday in a 12-11 loss at Texas in their final game before the break and then continued the hitting tear in the first against Zack Greinke.

Chicago's first eight batters reached Friday night with seven singles - including five straight at one point - and a hit batsman.

Orlando Cabrera and A.J. Pierzysnki opened with singles and Greinke hit Quentin with a pitch near the left wrist to load the bases. Dye followed with a two-run single, Jim Thome and Paul Konerko had run-scoring singles and Nick Swisher singled to reload the bases. Joe Crede delivered another RBI single and then Alexei Ramirez had a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to make it 6-1.

Quentin hit his 23rd homer leading off the second for a 7-1 lead.

The only hit Buerhle allowed through the first five innings was a bloop RBI single in the first by Mark Grudzielanek.

But the Royals got singles from David DeJesus and Mark Teahen in the sixth before Butler broke an 0-for-12 streak with his third homer to make it a three-run game. Butler added an RBI single off Nick Masset in the eighth.

Royals reliever Jimmy Gobble replaced Joel Peralta with a runner at first in the seventh and walked Thome before hitting Konerko with a low pitch - Royals manager Trey Hillman argued the call - to load the bases. He walked Swisher on a 3-2 pitch to force in Chicago's eighth run, and Crede greeted reliever Robinson Tejada with a sacrifice fly.

Kansas City got an unearned run in the first on Grudzielanek's single right after Ramirez fumbled Butler's grounder to second for an error. Butler, however, was thrown out on the play by right fielder Dye as he tried to get to third.

Greinke (7-6) lasted three-plus innings, his shortest outing of the season, and left after loading the bases in the fourth with a single and two walks, a jam reliever Peralta quickly escaped. Greinke, 2-8 in his career against the White Sox including 0-6 at U.S. Cellular Field, gave up seven runs, 11 hits and three walks.

Notes: Royals cleanup hitter Jose Guillen was a scratch with back spasms. ... Buehrle, who lost to the Royals last week in Kansas City, is 17-7 against them lifetime, his second-most wins against any opponent. He has beaten the Twins 21 times.

[Associated Press; By RICK GANO]

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