Ugly day for Garcia as Sox pitcher fails to continue interleague success

The numbers leaned heavily Sunday in favor of a White Sox sweep of the Florida Marlins at U.S Cellular Field, but Freddy Garcia proved to be a statistical anomaly.

In their previous four interleague outings, Sox pitchers were 4-0 and had allowed only 1 earned run in 36 innings for a microscopic 0.25 ERA.

Moreover, Garcia entered with a career record of 19-7 in 32 interleague starts, including a 7-1 mark over his last 10. He also had pitched well in his last 5 starts overall: 3-0 with an ERA of 3.38.

But the only numbers that mattered by day's end were the 13 runs on 18 hits the Marlins amassed against four White Sox pitchers in a 13-0 thumping in front of 28,298.

Garcia (3-3) was ripped for 7 earned runs on 7 hits - 3 of them home runs - in 21/3 innings, his shortest stint of the season.

"I don't have any excuse," Garcia said. "I was feeling really good. You guys see; I got hammered. All I can do is look for my next start and do my thing. Today I gave up 7 runs and 3 home runs, whatever. But I've got to put it in the past and continue to do my job.

"Like I said, I'm feeling good. I've been pitching not too bad. I tried to go away today and my ball was coming inside to the plate. I didn't make good pitches, everything up. If I don't put the ball down, I will get hit."

Florida wasted no time in taking a 4-0 lead. Hanley Ramirez and Jorge Cantu doubled in the first inning, and Cody Ross hit a 2-run homer to the left-field bleachers.

No. 8 hitter Ronny Paulino opened the second with a home run, and Dan Uggla's 2-run shot to left in the third made it 7-0.

"He was just up a little bit," Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said of Garcia's pitch location. "He couldn't really put guys away. He was getting ahead of guys - we can't say he wasn't getting ahead because a lot of the hits and home runs came with 2 strikes - but he just couldn't put them away."

The White Sox had scoring chances early. With two outs in the first inning, Alex Rios and Paul Konerko singled and Marlins starter Josh Johnson (5-1) walked Mark Kotsay. Johnson escaped by inducing a popout by Carlos Quentin.

Gordon Beckham singled with two outs in the second and Juan Pierre doubled, but Pierzynski grounded out to short.

However, this was a game decided more by a lack of effective Sox pitching than hitting.

"I think everything is about pitching," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Freddy (came) out today and did not have the stuff he's had for the last three or four outings.

"He's pitched well for us, very good for us, but today he just did not have it. He left a couple balls around the plate, and the ballclub came to swing and they did a good job."