Buehrle perfectly frustrated by Yankees

Mark Buehrle was about as far away from perfect as one could get Sunday afternoon.

Making his first start at U.S. Cellular Field since tossing his perfect game July 23 against Tampa Bay, Buehrle failed to make it out of the fifth inning in the White Sox' 8-5 loss to the New York Yankees.

"You go out there and get 45 straight guys out and today you can't two guys out in a row," Buehrle said. "That's what I've said, this game is a crazy game. It can bring you up when you're going good and when you're going bad you kind of realize you're not that good."

Buehrle teased the crowd of 36,325 with a 1-2-3 first inning, but the Yankees got 4 consecutive hits after one out in the second, including a 3-run homer by Melky Cabrera, to go ahead 3-0.

Buehrle allowed 2 hits in the third inning, 4 in the fourth and was gone after a walk and 2 more hits in the fifth.

"It seemed like everything they hit, they were putting it in play and finding holes," said Buehrle, who gave up 7 runs on 12 hits in 41/3 innings. "I didn't give us much of a chance to win today."

The much-anticipated duel between Buehrle and CC Sabathia never materialized, though the Yankees' $161 million ace held up his end.

Sabathia worked into the eighth inning to gain the victory despite surrendering 2 home runs among his 7 hits, back-to-back blows by Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome in the third that gave the White Sox a short-lived 4-3 lead.

Sabathia allowed only 1 run on 3 hits over the next four innings following the White Sox' big second.

"I was frustrated giving up the lead," Sabathia said. "I said, 'That's all you get.' The second inning was just one of those deals."

The win by the Yankees avoided a four-game sweep and kept them in first place in the AL East by a half-game over Boston.

"It would have been really tough to lose that game, but CC got it done," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "He got really good after that one inning."

Sabathia always has given the White Sox fits. He's 15-4 against them, 8-1 at U.S. Cellular Field and 6-0 matched up with Buehrle.

"That's a good team and Buehrle has been pitching great," Sabathia said. "I felt a lot better today than in my last few starts. I felt like I had a good idea where the ball was going."

It was only the second time in 22 starts this season that Buehrle failed to pitch at least 5 innings. While he got a rousing ovation from the crowd as he walked in from the bullpen before the start of the game, Buehrle will be glad when all the hoopla from his perfect game is well in the past.

In starts against Minnesota and the Yankees since his perfect game, Buehrle has a 10.12 ERA.

"I wanted to get that out of the way after it happened, but obviously it kind of carries over," Buehrle said. "This whole week coming up, I got the whole appreciation week, which is nice, but it's like carrying it on even more.

"It'll be nice to get it over with and focus on trying to win games."