White Sox no match for Red Sox
Tim Wakefield's knuckleball baffled the White Sox and sent the surging Boston Red Sox to another victory.
Wakefield allowed three hits in seven shutout innings and joined teammate Josh Beckett as the major league's only 16-game winners as Boston pounded Chicago pitching for a third straight game in a 14-2 win Saturday.
Wakefield (16-10) allowed a leadoff single to Jerry Owens in the first and not another hit until Jermaine Dye doubled and Danny Richar singled in the seventh. He walked three and struck out six.
The 41-year-old Wakefield won for the 11th time in his last 14 starts. He has a decision in all of his 26 starts, the first to reach that number since Jack McDowell posted decisions in his first 27 starts with the Chicago White Sox in 1993.
Wakefield got plenty of help from the potent Red Sox offense.
The Red Sox, who swept a doubleheader from slumping Chicago on Friday when Beckett won his 16th, got their major league-leading 79th win, breaking a scoreless tie by scoring four times in the sixth off Mark Buehrle (9-9). The rally was capped by Bobby Kielty's two-run bases-loaded single.
Kielty finished with four RBIs and Mike Lowell had four hits for Boston, which has outscored Chicago 35-6 in the three-game series. The Red Sox have won five of their last six games.
Chicago got its only runs on Paul Konerko's two-run homer off reliever Kyle Snyder in the eighth. The White Sox lost for the 12th time in 14 games and fell 17 games under .500 for the first time since 1999.
Boston made it a rout by adding eight runs in the eighth off shaky Chicago relievers Ryan Bukvich and Mike MacDougal.
After allowing the single to Owens on an 0-2 pitch in the first, Wakefield walked A.J. Pierzynski but got out of it with two fly balls.
He walked Konerko and Dye in the fourth before striking out Juan Uribe to end the inning. And after surrendering the two hits in the seventh, he fanned Andy Gonzalez to end the threat.
Buehrle gave up a single to No. 2 hitter Coco Crisp in the first and not another hit until Dustin Pedroia beat out a single to deep short to start the sixth.
One out later David Ortiz slapped a double into the left field corner and the White Sox walked Manny Ramirez intentionally to load the bases.
But Lowell foiled the strategy by hitting a 1-2 pitch to left for an RBI single, and Kevin Youkilis followed with another run-scoring hit in almost the same spot to make it 2-0.
Moments later Kielty came through with a third straight single in the hole to left to score Ramirez. Lowell also raced home when Chicago left fielder Andy Gonzalez hesitated throwing the ball back to the infield, and Boston had a 4-0 lead.
Youkilis added an RBI double in the seventh.
Notes: Boston has won six of seven from the White Sox this season, outscoring them 66-20. ... Kielty has long been a tough out for Buehrle, entering the game 16-for-45 (.356) against him, including a homer in 2002 when he was with the Twins that denied the Chicago lefty a 20-win season. ... After a series finale against the White Sox on Sunday, Boston has a day off Monday before beginning a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.