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Litsch, Scutaro guide Blue Jays to 10th straight win

Sep 10, 2008 - 6:06 AM By Gene Chamberlain PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Things can't get much better for the Toronto Blue Jays. They couldn't get much worse for the Chicago White Sox.

Marco Scutaro, Scott Rolen and Vernon Wells homered on Tuesday to back the pitching of Jesse Litsch in the Blue Jays' 8-2 victory over the White Sox to complete a day-night doubleheader sweep.

The triumph, which followed Toronto's 3-1 victory over Chicago earlier in the day, was the Blue Jays' 10th straight, one short of their franchise high of 11 consecutive wins from August 27-September 7, 1998.

Despite trailing Boston (85-59) by seven games in the American League wild-card race, count Toronto manager Cito Gaston as one of those who thinks the Blue Jays (78-66) have a chance to crash the playoff party.

"We believe we're still in it," Gaston said.

On the other hand, the White Sox (80-64) saw their 2 1/2-game advantage entering play drop to one game after Minnesota (79-65) prevailed against Kansas City. Adding injury to insult, Chicago lost first baseman Paul Konerko indefinitely in the nightcap to a sprained right medial collateral ligament after he was injured during a rundown in the fifth inning.

Konerko fell to the infield clutching his knee in obvious pain after taking a cutoff throw from right fielder Jermaine Dye and then throwing to second base while slightly off-balance.

"I could feel a couple little pops," Konerko said. "It went a couple clicks probably farther than it should go. It scared me more than anything. It did hurt."

Manager Ozzie Guillen, who has seen left fielder Carlos Quentin break his wrist when he expressed his frustration after an at-bat on September 1 and third baseman Joe Crede go out with a bad back in the last few weeks, preferred to remain pessimistic. He called it a "week to week" situation based on his own history with the injury.

"Sometimes you look around and say 'what's going on? What's going to happen next?' " Guillen said regarding his team's recent string of bad luck. "Every day, somebody is going down, but meanwhile these injuries can't stop the season. We can't stop.

"We have to continue to move on and fight with what we have and see what happens."

He was helped off the field by team medical personnel, but X-rays of Konerko's leg were negative. Team officials reported the injury would be examined further Wednesday.

Scutaro started the game with a home run to left field off Chicago lefthander Clayton Richard (2-4).

The White Sox came back with a two-run, third-inning double by Jermaine Dye off Litsch (11-8). However, Toronto struck back with a four-run rally in the fifth.

Rolen, who was batting .149 over his previous 20 contests, belted a two-run home run with no outs to help the White Sox take a one-run lead. John McDonald singled before Scutaro reached on a bunt single before both runners moved up on Jose Bautista's sacrifice bunt.

Alex Rios singled to right, scoring McDonald and moving Scutaro to third. But Rios strayed too far around first base after the hit and Konerko took Dye's throw, then threw to second as the White Sox got Rios in a rundown for the second out. However, Konerko went down with the injury.

Following the injury delay, Wells doubled in another run.

"When we score runs, that always gets you locked in," Litsch said. "Those two runs (on Dye's double), going down, then we come back two innings later and put up four, that's always big."

The Blue Jays added an RBI single by Rios in the seventh and RBI single by McDonald in the eighth before Wells hit his 17th home run in the ninth off Lance Broadway for the final run.

Litsch (11-8) went seven innings, allowing two runs and six hits with six strikeouts.

After the injury scare and three straight defeats -- including Sunday's loss to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - the White Sox are ready to move on. Perhaps Nick Swisher, who replaced Konerko at first, summed up Chicago's recent woes the best.

"I think in the big realm of things, you really just kind of forget about today," Swisher said. "It wasn't a good day for any of us."