Late Thome HR lifts Sox to win over Royals

Jim Thome often hears about all of the things he can no longer do at 38.

He can't play first base anymore. He can't keep his back healthy. Can't run. Can't hit the ball the opposite way, even when the shortstop is playing second base and the second baseman is playing short right field.

Can't, can't, can't.

As Thome showed Tuesday, though, he still can put a charge into a fastball.

"Jimmy works so hard to prepare himself for the season, he deserves that," manager Ozzie Guillen said after Thome's 3-run homer off Kyle Farnsworth in the eighth inning lifted the White Sox to a 4-2 season-opening victory over the Kansas City Royals at U.S. Cellular Field.

"When you go to spring training and work the way he works, he's a veteran player and he's not going to panic with the game on the line," Guillen continued. "It's something you're always looking for. When Jimmy's swinging the bat well, he can carry a ballclub."

Yes, he can.

Squaring up a 2-1 fastball from Farnsworth with two outs, Thome hit his 542nd career home run while getting the Sox off to a promising start.

"When you get a ball in the middle of the plate, especially on a guy like Farnsworth, you have to capitalize on it," Thome said. "It worked out today.

"In that part of the game, the adrenaline is going. I was not trying to hit a home run, I was trying to get a basehit through the middle. I was trying to stay through the middle.

"The approach was there, I got a ball out over the plate and hit it in air and it went out."

Thome admitted there is one thing he can't - or shouldn't - do anymore.

"I gave J.D. (Jermaine Dye) a fist bump," Thome said. "We both said: 'Let's not do that anymore, we could break each other's wrists.' "

Thome came up big for the White Sox, but third baseman Josh Fields has to get credit for leading off the eighth inning with a bunt single. And Chris Getz has to get credit for advancing Fields to third base with a hit-and-run single.

And don't forget Clayton Richard, who relieved erratic starter Mark Buehrle and delivered 2 perfect innings.

"To me, that was the biggest piece of the game, when Richard went out and shut it down for a couple innings to give us the opportunity to keep competing in the game," Guillen said.

Buehrle labored through 5 innings, throwing 97 pitches while allowing 6 hits, 3 walks and hitting two batters. But the left-hander allowed just 2 runs.

"Buehrle struggled," Guillen said. "He was bad. One thing about Bur, the ball was up. Maybe because of the short spring training, he was keeping the ball up and he couldn't find the strike zone.

"But one thing about it, we can count on this kid for 162 games. He battled. He was in trouble almost every inning, but he came out of it and gave us a chance to win."

Buehrle said he was too pumped up, and that caused him to throw his fastball too hard.

"It's kind of embarrassing, not going 7 or 8 innings," Buehrle said. "I had to battle in every inning, but the bullpen came through and we got some clutch hitting."

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