Rays remind Buehrle of '05 Sox

St. Petersburg, Fla. - When Mark Buehrle looks across the field at the Tampa Bay Rays, he gets an eerie sense of deja vu.

"This team kind of reminds me of 2005 with us," Buehrle said of the world champion White Sox. "To win games, they do everything they need to do."

The Rays did it again Friday and the White Sox didn't, despite double-digit hits and scoring chances galore.

And now the Sox find themselves in a deep hole, needing to win three straight games just to keep their season alive.

"We had a lot of chances, but they aren't the best team in the American League for no reason," Buehrle said. "You can't say that they're getting lucky. They're coming up with timely hitting and making big pitches when they need to."

Buehrle had the Sox on the right side of a 2-1 score through four innings but hit a snag in the fifth after Jason Bartlett singled with one out and then leadoff man Akinori Iwamura followed by launching a 1-1 delivery over the left field wall.

"I felt awesome out there," Buehrle said. "The game was cruising right along - we got 2 quick runs (in the first inning). Except that one bad pitch to Akinura ... other than that, I thought I threw the ball well."

Buehrle left the game in the eighth after Tampa added some insurance runs.

His final numbers on the day looked a little lofty - 7 innings pitched and 5 earned runs on 10 hits - but were deceiving according to catcher A.J. Pierzynski.

"Mark pitched great," Pierzynski said. "His (pitching) line really isn't going to reflect how well he pitched."

Sox manager Ozzie Guillen had no regrets about leaving Buehrle in the game to start the eighth.

"Nope, he's my best guy and he was throwing well," Guillen said. "I can sleep tonight and the rest of my life real good."

The loss was Buehrle's first in six postseason starts. He is now 2-1 with a 4.11 ERA lifetime in the postseason.

His catcher thought his stuff Friday was good enough to earn his third career playoff victory.

"He deserves a lot more credit for the way he threw the ball, the way he went about his business and kept us in the game," Pierzynski said. "He probably deserved to win."