White Sox lose in 12, ending 9-game winning streak

[June 04, 2012]  CHICAGO (AP) -- White Sox manager Robin Ventura went to his bullpen until it was empty Saturday, making every effort and every move to keep his team's winning streak intact.

Ventura eventually ran out of relievers and Chicago's nine-game run came to an end with a 10-8 loss to the Seattle Mariners.

Ichiro Suzuki homered twice and John Jaso hit a tiebreaking double for the Mariners, who pushed across two runs in the 12th against closer Addison Reed.

Now that the winning streak is over, Chicago's goal is to keep playing the same brand of baseball.

"It has been nice. We've done a lot of good things. We plan on continuing," Ventura said. "You can't win every game, but you know we are in every game, so that's the good news. We plan on being in games from here on out, too."

Chicago starter Gavin Floyd gave up four homers, two to Suzuki, and the White Sox used nine pitchers in a game that took 4 hours, 16 minutes.

"We did the right things, they just had a little more today. We had a chance to win it and just couldn't get it done," said Chicago's Gordon Beckham, who homered and had four RBIs.

Seattle's bullpen shut out the White Sox over the final four innings to end Chicago's longest winning streak since July 2010.

"It was unbelievable," Beckham said. " It was a long day. We used everybody. You hate to lose but when you don't have anybody else in the bullpen, it's one of those things. It is what it is."

Tom Wilhelmsen (2-1) pitched three scoreless innings, allowing one hit. Hisashi Iwakuma earned his second save by pitching the 12th, retiring Adam Dunn on a grounder with a runner on second to end it.

"Our bullpen came in and shut the door, and we were hitting one through nine," said Seattle's Michael Saunders, who homered and had four hits.

On Friday night, Saunders dropped a fly ball in the eighth inning that led to three unearned runs and helped the White Sox to a 7-4 win. He was able to make up for it Saturday.

"The White Sox were really hot coming into this series and we lost a tough one last night," Saunders said. "It's easy to lose focus coming into a 12-inning game. When you give up a lead, it's easy to get down on yourselves. It's a hell of a win."

Jesus Montero led off the 10th with a double against Reed (0-1). One out later, Jaso drove in pinch-runner Munenori Kawasaki with another double. Chone Figgins followed with an RBI single.

Chicago's Dayan Viciedo tied the game with a two-out solo homer in the eighth off Stephen Pryor -- the eighth home run of the game, four by each team.

The Mariners had rallied with three runs in the eighth off Jesse Crain for an 8-7 lead on Brendan Ryan's two-run double and an error on catcher A.J. Pierzynski, when his throw attempting to nab a stealing Ryan skipped past third and into left field.

"It was just back and forth. They are tough. They won't go away," Ventura said of the Mariners, who beat the White Sox for the first time in five tries this season. "They'd go ahead and we catch them and they go ahead. It's just one of those games. They are tough to put away."

Suzuki, just moved back to the leadoff spot Friday, hit two solo homers on a breezy, 73-degree day at U.S. Cellular Field.

In addition to Suzuki and Saunders, Justin Smoak also went deep for the Mariners. Pierzynski and Alex Rios also homered for first-place Chicago.

Floyd yielded nine hits and five runs in five-plus innings. He has been roughed up in his last four starts.

"Bad pitches," he said.

NOTES: Carlton Fisk, a Hall of Famer who caught for both the Red and White Sox, threw out the first pitch. Fisk said he was happy for his former teammate when Ventura got the manager's job in Chicago, although he was scratching his head when he first heard. "When he got the job, I was saying, 'Why? What is the purpose? How did this come about?' And then my first time in here, I sat in Robin's office for 45 minutes ... and just talked about the whole process. It's pretty interesting the way it came about," Fisk said.

[Associated Press; By RICK GANO]

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.