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White Sox beat Twins on homers by Dye, Uribe

May 8, 2008 - 11:12 PM By Gene Chamberlain PA Sports Ticker contributing writer

CHICAGO (Ticker) - During a six-game road trip to Minnesota and Toronto last week, Juan Uribe's struggles with the bat led to rumors in the Chicago media that the veteran infielder could be traded or waived.

On Thursday, Uribe had teammates standing and applauding in the dugout as he helped the White Sox post a 6-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins at U.S. Cellular Field.

Uribe's two-run home run in the fifth inning gave the White Sox a 3-2 lead and his hard slide into second enabled another run to score in the eighth.

"Uribe, you have to take advantage of him when he's hot," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Because this kid will take the ugliest swings and ugliest at-bats he can, and we've seen that for four years or five years.

"You know what you're going to get. Sometimes you get upset and you scratch your head and you're asking how this kid plays at the big-league level - and a couple days later, he's unbelievable."

Uribe's shot came during a three-run fifth and ended Chicago's string of 11 straight homers with the bases empty.

His slide hard into second baseman Brendan Harris prevented an inning-ending double play and allowed Jermaine Dye to score Chicago's fifth run.

Guillen was more impressed by Uribe's aggressive baserunning than his home run.

"The best thing he did today was break up the double play," Guillen said. "We've been missing that in the game - going hard into second base and stealing bases. I was the first one jumping up and running out of my seat. It's something we're missing - not just the White Sox, but baseball.

"That gets you pumped up. It was the way I grew up watching baseball. Don Baylor and all those guys sliding into second base tried to get you. Now you slide into second base and you get dirty and you're a bad guy."

Through four innings, Twins starter Kevin Slowey (0-2) held the White Sox to one hit in his first start since coming off the disabled list.

The Twins grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth on RBI singles by Matt Tolbert and Joe Mauer off John Danks (3-3).

But the White Sox began their comeback on Dye's leadoff shot in the bottom of the fifth, his third homer in as many games. After Nick Swisher struck out, Joe Crede doubled and scored on Uribe's homer that gave the White Sox a 3-2 lead.

On Wednesday, Chicago pitcher Mark Buehrle grabbed Uribe's bat and used it to hit things in the dugout. Buehrle was frustrated after getting shelled.

But Uribe, who came into Thursday's game batting .187, suggested Buehrle took a jinx off the bat.

"Today, I'm a hero and yesterday an (expletive)," Buehrle said, laughing.

The White Sox tacked on a run in the seventh on Carlos Quentin's two-out RBI single, then added two more in the eighth. One run scored on Tolbert's throwing error and Dye scored on Toby Hall's grounder when Uribe made the hard slide.

"Every day I go to the ballpark, I try to help the team however I can," Uribe said. "I think it's good to be sliding. I don't want no one to call me (out). That's the best way I can help my team."

Danks departed after five innings, but picked up his first win since April 20. He allowed six hits with two walks and five strikeouts.

"I was giving up a lot of hits and a lot of deep counts in the fifth," Danks said. "I totally understood our reasoning there."

The game marked both the return and then departure of Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, who had been away for almost a week due to the death of his brother.

Gardenhire was ejected in the sixth inning for arguing that timeout should have been called on a double steal by the White Sox.

"We made some mistakes late in the game and gave them a couple runs," Gardenhire said. "The bottom line was their pitching was better than ours today. We made mistakes and those will cost us all the time. We let them back in and just fell behind."