Gavin Floyd pitches White Sox past Boston 5-1

Posted September 04, 2009 11:00 pm

Scot Gregor

Time keeps on ticking, and the White Sox finally are clicking.

Do the Sox really have a chance to chase down the first-place Detroit Tigers, who went into Saturday's play with a 7-game lead?

"I think there is (enough time)," Paul Konerko said after the White Sox dropped Boston 5-1 at U.S. Cellular Field for their fourth straight victory.

"I mean, it's not going to be easy and we might need some help at some point because with those six head-to-head games with Detroit (at the end of the season), you can't expect to be 5 or 6 back and you have to sweep them," Konerko continued.

"They're a good team, so you need to kind of knock that down."

The Sox finally are playing like a good team, and they rode another impressive outing from starting pitcher Gavin Floyd to victory.

"The last couple of days have been good, you know?" Konerko said. "Solid pitching and getting on the board early."

The White Sox jumped on Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (11-4) for 3 runs in the first inning, with Konerko knocking in a pair with a single.

Floyd (11-9) took over from there. The right-hander had a perfect game going until No. 9 hitter Nick Green singled cleanly up the middle with two outs in the sixth inning.

"You're aware of it, but the sixth inning, there's still a lot of game to go," Floyd said after establishing a career-high with 11 strikeouts. "I just try to focus on pitches and try to let things happen. If it happens, it happens. If not, put it behind you."

The White Sox still are trying to put a brutal road trip behind them. They lost eight of nine at Boston, New York and Minnesota before hitting the brakes and trying to get back on track.

They've gotten some revenge by winning the first two against the Red Sox, but Boston sends Jon Lester (11-7) to the mound Sunday against John Danks (12-8) and Josh Beckett (14-5) opposes Mark Buehrle (11-7) on Monday.

"We've got two real tough pitchers we're going to go up against the next two days, their good guys, so it's going to be a fight," Konerko said. "They're a good team, a lot of champions over there, so they're not going to lay down for us. They're going to come out ready to fight, so we've got to be ready for that.

"But it feels good to have a few days where we feel like we're a good team. It was a rough road trip as everybody knows. We haven't made up for that yet, but we've just got to keep clawing away, play our games as good as we can play them.

"We're probably going to need some help at some point, someone to make Detroit lose while we're winning until we can go head to head with them. But we can't control that. We just have to worry about our own games."

White Sox 5, Red Sox 1 Flirting with perfection: Gavin Floyd retired the first 17 hitters he faced and had a perfect game going until Nick Green singled with two outs in the sixth inning. Floyd struck out 11, a career high, and he's 9-5 with a 2.62 ERA over his last 20 starts. Kotsay's OK: Manager Ozzie Guillen continues raving about veteran utility man Mark Kotsay, who homered for the second straight game Saturday. Follow the captain: Paul Konerko was 2-for-4 with a homer and 3 RBI. He's hitting .386 over his last 13 games. Still sitting: Jermaine Dye missed his second straight game with a stiff back.