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Eaton, Phillies shut down struggling White Sox

Jun 12, 2007 - 5:16 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Adam Eaton pitched seven outstanding innings and had support from three solo homers as the Philadelphia Phillies posted a 3-0 interleague shutout over the Chicago White Sox.

Pat Burrell, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins each hit solo homers off Javier Vazquez for Philadelphia, which is 29-20 (.592) in its last 49 games after starting the season 4-11.

Eaton (7-4) yielded four hits and three walks to improve to 4-1 in his last five starts. The righthander, who struck out five, surpassed his victory total from 2006, when he missed the majority of the season with the Texas Rangers due to a torn tendon in his right middle finger suffered in spring training.

"Every game I want to go deep," Eaton said. "Today, I got away with some mistakes. I just tried to be aggressive in the strike zone."

Eaton threw exactly 100 pitches, 60 for strikes, and improved his interleague record to 6-6, helping the Phillies recover from an embarrassing 17-5 loss at Kansas City on Sunday.

"Tonight, I felt like (Eaton) went more with his changeup and slider," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "He made big pitches."

Reliever Mike Zagurski pitched the eighth inning before Antonio Alfonseca worked around a two-out single by Juan Uribe to notch his fifth save in six opportunities.

After snapping a season-high five-game losing streak on Sunday, Chicago again falls six games under .500.

"It's like watching 'ESPN News' after 11 o'clock at night," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Same thing over and over and over for 24 hours. That's what it seems (like) right now."

It was the fifth time the White Sox were shut out and 13th time they have scored a run or less in 2007. They have lost six of seven.

"I don't have the answer," Guillen added. "The only thing I can do is wake up tomorrow and keep rooting for these guys. I'm behind them 100 percent. Hopefully, the talent starts coming out."

With two outs in the bottom of the second, Burrell belted a 2-1 pitch from Vazquez over the center field wall to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead. It was the eight homer of the season for Burrell and the 17th of his career in interleague play.

"Vazquez has always pitched pretty well against us," Burrell said. "I hit a slider on the pitch. It was important for us to get a lead. He got better as the game went on. That's why it's always important to get a guy early."

In the fourth inning, Howard brought the Philadelphia fans out of their seats by hitting a massive two-out homer into the second tier of the right field seats to increase the lead to 2-0. It was the second straight day Howard homered, giving him a total of 13.

"We had some timely hits when we needed it," Howard said. "You want to come out and especially after a loss like we had the other day, you want to try to bounce back. You want to try to right the ship."

Rollins finished the scoring by sending a 2-2 pitch from Vazquez into the first row of seats in right field to make it 3-0.

"They hit those three (home run) pitches good," Vazquez said. "I can't say anything else."

Chicago threatened in the fifth and sixth innings, putting two men on base in each frame, but were unable to come up with a timely hit.

"It's the story of our season so far," said White Sox outfielder Rob Mackowiak, who stranded the two runners in the fifth. "We've been doing it every day. We're leaving guys on base and not coming through in situations when we need to."

Vazquez (3-5) allowed three runs, four hits and walk in six innings. The righthander, who struck out four, has only one win in his last 10 starts after beginning the season 2-0.

"Our starting rotation does everything in their power to keep us in games," Guillen said. "We've been wasting a lot of good pitching from the starting rotation. We've not helped them at all at the plate."