Sox not discouraged after 2nd loss to N.Y.

The White Sox have been a nice story in the early stages of the season, bouncing back from a sorry showing in 2007 to resemble an actual competitive baseball team.

With the Yankees in town for a big early series, the stage was set for the Sox to show they indeed are for real.

Instead, they took another step back Wednesday night, falling to New York 6-4 at U.S. Cellular Field.

Was the promising early start nothing more than that?

Sox first baseman Paul Konerko doesn't think so.

"We're not playing terrible,'' Konerko said. "We're playing just well enough to lose. We're just not playing quite good enough in every area so we shouldn't be discouraged. It's not like we're getting killed."

The White Sox were dangerously close to that point in the sixth inning, when Johnny Damon's 2-run double off starting pitcher Javier Vazquez put the Yankees in front 6-1.

Carlos Quentin hit a solo home run off Yankees starter Mike Mussina with two outs in the seventh, and the Sox rallied for 2 runs on 2 hits against New York's bullpen in the eighth.

That was it for the Sox, but it was enough to give manager Ozzie Guillen some hope.

"They had to bring the best closer in the game (Mariano Rivera) in to shut it down (in the eighth inning)," Guillen said. "That's a good sign. We came back and we kept fighting. Sometimes you lose the fight and sometimes you win."

This bout was decided much earlier, and the Yankees came out on top because Mussina pitched better than Vazquez in a matchup of veteran right-handers.

Mussina was shredded in each of his last two outings, both against the Boston Red Sox, allowing 9 earned runs on 15 hits over a combined 8¿ innings.

But with 251 career wins under his belt coming into Wednesday, the 39-year-old Mussina has had a lot more good days than bad.

Count his start against the White Sox as another good one.

Nick Swisher said the crafty starter was throwing between 48 and 85 (mph). He was exaggerating the former speed, but not by much.

"He was throwing four pitches for strikes," Konerko said of Mussina. "That's pitching … look it up. That's what it looks like.

"He didn't make too many mistakes over the middle of the plate. He either hits the corners or misses just off the corners. That's it.''

Vazquez, on the other hand, was missing all over the place while pitching 5½ innings and allowing 6 runs on 10 hits and 3 walks. The 31-year-old starter did his best to keep the Sox in the game early, but the Yankees scored 2 runs in the fifth inning and 3 more in the sixth.

"Javy was off,'' Guillen said. "He was in heavy counts most of the night, and early in the game he couldn't find the strike zone."

Vazquez saw his three-game winning streak come to an end Wednesday.

"I felt good physically," Vazquez said. "They have a great lineup, a lot of lefties. And they take a lot of pitches, so you have to have your control. I didn't. It was a battle out there."