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KANSAS CITY, Mo.(AP) Chicago manager
Ozzie Guillen
was pleased with 17 hits, delighted with how his
White Sox
used them.
''We did something we don't do this year,'' Guillen said after Chicago pounded slumping Kansas City 11-2 on Friday night.
''Three times we went first-to-third, four times. We put the pressure on the guy. When we got people on base, we'd drive them
in.''
Starting with
Jermaine Dye
's first-inning homer off
Brian Bannister
, everybody in Chicago's starting lineup got involved. Everyone had at least one hit and scored at least one run. Everybody
drove in a run except
Brian Anderson
and
Jim Thome
- who has 1,514 career RBIs.
''We did a lot of good things,'' said Guillen, whose
White Sox
have won seven of their last 10.
Alexei Ramirez
, A.J. Pierzynski and
Josh Fields
each had three hits.
Paul Konerko
, Ramirez, Dye and Fields each had two RBIs.
Chicago also got good pitching.
Clayton Richard
(2-0) went seven innings for his second straight victory. He gave up six hits, including
Billy Butler
's two-run homer, walked only one and struck out seven in his 12th major league start.
The
White Sox
also got some good defense early, including a 6-4-3 double play to end the second inning while the outcome was still in doubt.
''The defense made some big plays early in the game that got me out of situations I didn't want to get into,'' Clayton said.
The only problem, he added with a grin, were all those long stretches when the
White Sox
batters refused to make outs.
''That's a tough thing as a pitcher, having those long innings,'' he said. ''You want those big innings but you want them
to be quick big innings. That's a tough thing to sit for a long time and then gear back up and go out and go. But you'd definitely
rather get those runs than not get them.''
Bannister (4-2), who had won six of eight decisions dating to last September, had his worst outing of the year while losing
his fourth straight to the
White Sox
. The right-hander gave up seven runs on nine hits in five innings plus two batters.
''It wasn't just me. It was every guy that kept going out there,'' Bannister said. ''They kept managing to either hit the
ground balls in the holes or flip them out. Or broken bats (hits) over the infield. It was a frustrating night. I don't believe
we pitched that bad, but it was one of the fortunate baseball games for them. They're a good hitting team, but things really
went their way tonight.''
The first five batters scored for Chicago in the sixth, starting with Anderson, who doubled and came home when
Chris Getz
's RBI single chased Bannister.
Sidney Ponson
then gave up singles to Fields,
Scott Podsednik
and Ramirez before retiring Dye on a run-scoring grounder that made it 9-0. He then walked Thome and gave up an RBI single
to Konerko ahead of Pierzynski's RBI double.
After Richard yielded the homer to Butler in the sixth, the 25-year-old left-hander struck out the side in the seventh as
Chicago won for the seventh time in 10 games.
Butler,
Mark Teahen
and
Alberto Callaspo
each had two hits for Kansas City, which lost for the 14th time in 19 games and dropped two games below .500 for the first
time all season.
Ponson got one out while allowing four hits and four runs.
''In his defense, I had him up three different times before I brought him in,'' said Royals manager Trey Hillman. ''That's
never easy, but you've still got to find a way to be effective. We just didn't pitch very well.''
Notes: Hillman said he felt better about his one-game suspension after talking with
Bob Watson
in the league office. Hillman was quite upset when he was suspended Wednesday for spitting in an umpire's eye, which he said
was accidental. ''He was very cordial, very understanding of my displeasure,'' Hillman said. ... The
White Sox
put OF
Carlos Quentin
on the 15-day DL with a sore left foot.
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