Jays' Burnett shuts down Sox in 3-1 loss

A.J. Burnett allowed one hit in seven innings -- a hard drive off his third baseman -- and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Chicago White Sox 3-1 Tuesday in the opener of a day-night doubleheader to extend their winning streak to nine.

Toronto is on its longest winning streak since taking a franchise-record 11 in a row in from Aug. 27-Sept. 7, 1998, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Blue Jays began Tuesday 8ˆ½ games behind Boston in the AL wild-card race.

Lyle Overbay hit a two-run, two-out double off Javier Vazquez (11-13), and Rod Barajas singled in a run against Mike MacDougal in the ninth.

Burnett (17-10) allowed one unearned run, struck out seven and walked one, working around three errors and several other defensive lapses.

Burnett's bid for his second career no-hitter ended when Orlando Cabrera drove hard one-hopper off Scott Rolen's glove and into left field for a single leading off the sixth.

On Aug. 31, Milwaukee was infuriated when the official scorer in Pittsburgh ruled Andy LaRoche's slow fifth-inning grounder off CC Sabathia was a hit rather than an error on the pitcher, who dropped the ball during a barehand attempt. Sabathia wound up with a one-hitter, and Major League Baseball denied the Brewers' appeal asking that the scoring decision be changed to an error.

Burnett threw 112 pitches, and Scott Downs followed with a one-hit eighth.

B.J. Ryan walked Paul Konerko and Ken Griffey Jr. leading off the ninth but escaped with his 28th save in 32 chances. He struck out Alexei Ramirez and Nick Swisher before Juan Uribe grounded out.

Chicago scored in the sixth after Cabrera's hit when shortstop John McDonald booted Jermaine Dye's grounder, Burnett threw a wild pitch and Jim Thome hit a sacrifice fly.

Vazquez allowed two runs and five hits in six innings.