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Vazquez, Thome lead White Sox past Royals

Aug 22, 2007 - 4:31 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Javier Vazquez continues to be one of the few bright spots for the Chicago White Sox.

Vazquez pitched six-plus effective innings and Jim Thome homered and drove in three runs as the White Sox posted a 5-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.

Rookie Danny Richar hit his third career homer and Paul Konerko added a solo blast for Chicago, which moved ahead of Kansas City for fourth place in the American League Central Division.

"In the American League, you've got to have some threat to go deep and hit some home runs," Konerko said. "You've got to be dangerous, looking like you can hit, and that's something we probably haven't done all year."

The White Sox have won two straight following a season-high eight-game losing streak.

"Everyone's still grinding, even though it hasn't been a great year, guys still care," Thome said. "We had a good night, and hopefully we can carry this into tomorrow."

Vazquez (11-6) allowed two runs and five hits for his eighth win in his last 12 starts.

"It's all about confidence," Vazquez said. "If things are going good for you, you have a lot of confidence in yourself."

The righthander, who walked two and struck out three, is 5-1 with two complete games in his last six outings at home.

"I'm feeling good, my body feels good, and my confidence is high," Vazquez added. "I'm getting it done - I'm competing and throwing pitches where I'm supposed to and getting out of jams."

After Vazquez allowed a leadoff single to Tony Pena Jr. in the seventh, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen replaced him with Boone Logan, who retired the next three batters to end the inning.

Chicago used four relievers in the eighth, including rookie Ehren Wassermann, Mike Myers, Ryan Bukvich and Matt Thornton, who induced Alex Gordon to hit into an inning-ending double play to end a threat with runners on first and second.

"The bullpen did a good job because they threw zeros," Guillen said. "I've got 13 guys in the bullpen that I've got to use. When you play this game, you've go to pick each other up, and they did that today."

Closer Bobby Jenks came on in the ninth to record his 35th save in 40 chances.

In his 10th season from Puerto Rico, Vazquez, who is also 5-2 lifetime vs. the Royals, watched his teammates score early in this game.

Thome hit an RBI double in the bottom of the first to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead and added to his RBI total two innings later.

With a runner aboard in the third, Thome drilled a 1-1 pitch from Royals rookie starter Leo Nunez into the second row of seats in right for 21st home run of the season, and 493rd of his career, to give Chicago a 3-0 advantage.

"Home runs are a unique thing," Thome said. "You have to put the good part of the bat on it, and you may go two weeks and not hit one. It's fun while you do it, and you understand that you can get hot and cold while it's going on."

The blast tied Thome with Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff for 23rd on the all-time home run list.

After Emil Brown put Kansas City on the board with a sacrifice fly in the top half of the fourth, Richar hit a two-out, 2-0 pitch from Nunez in the bottom of the inning over the fence in right to again increase the White Sox lead to 4-1.

Nunez (2-1) was chased after four innings, after allowing four runs on six hits. The young righthander also struck out four and handed out two walks in his fifth major league start.

"(Nunez) threw a lot of pitches in four innings," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "We had a lot of opportunities, but there's just nothing behind our swings."

Konerko tied Jermaine Dye for the club lead with his 24th homer off Royals reliever Jimmy Gobble in the eighth to make the score 5-2.