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Beckham, Floyd lead White Sox over Orioles 7-5

Aug 25, 2010 - 4:31 AM CHICAGO(AP) -- With limited options left in his bullpen, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen had to call on closer Bobby Jenks again.

Gordon Beckham hit a three-run home run in the seventh, Gavin Floyd pitched seven strong innings and Chicago held on to beat the Baltimore Orioles 7-5 on Tuesday night.

The White Sox won for just the fifth time in 15 games, moving within 3 1/2 games of first-place Minnesota in the AL Central.

But the win came at a cost for Chicago's bullpen. The White Sox will lose relievers Matt Thornton (sore left forearm) and J.J. Putz (right knee inflammation) to the disabled list. The team will call up a pair of relievers from the minors Wednesday to replace the two veterans.

Leading 7-2 in the ninth inning, reliever Sergio Santos did not record an out and gave up a pair of RBI singles to Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis. Putz inherited runners at first and third with no outs but left after throwing three straight balls to Ty Wigginton. Guillen called for Jenks, who got Wigginton to hit a comebacker to start a double play.

"I squared it up and he made a nice play to get the double play. That's the way baseball works," said Wigginton.

Roberts scored on the double play, but Jenks then got Scott to fly out for his 24th save in 27 opportunities.

Jenks pitched three scoreless innings in Sunday's loss to the Royals.

"The last guy I wanted to use was Bobby. One day off, between three innings and today I was taking a risk, but I didn't have any choices. It's always important late in the game when you have a bullpen that can shut it down. We do that all year long. Unfortunately now we hit a bump and that road has a lot of bumps now," said Guillen.

The White Sox bullpen is 1-5 with four blown saves and a 6.17 ERA over the last eight games, allowing six home runs.

Luke Scott homered and Felix Pie had three hits for the Orioles, who have lost eight of 12.

A.J. Pierzynski opened the bottom of seventh with a single off Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie. One out later, Mark Teahen hit a double down the right-field line, moving Pierzynski to third. Beckham followed with his eighth homer to break a 2-all tie.

"We needed kind of a spark, we needed to get some runs, we needed to get a big hit in a big situation, and on Sunday I had a couple of at-bats where I didn't and it was nice to come through," said Beckham.

Paul Konerko added an RBI single off Baltimore reliever Matt Albers, and Juan Pierre hit an RBI single in the eighth to give the White Sox a 7-2 lead.

Guthrie's night ended after he hit Alex Rios in the back later in the inning.

Floyd (9-10) allowed two runs and scattered seven hits. He struck out six and walked two and also conserved some of the work for the bullpen.

"When I had 80-some pitches after the fifth, I was like hopefully six, but I wanted to go longer than that. They allowed me to go longer and it was nice to save some of the bullpen," said Floyd.

The Orioles wasted several scoring chances against Floyd.

"I thought he threw the ball very well. I can't think of too many pitches that were out over the plate. He was down in the zone and around the corners. Just off the plate. He made good pitches," said Wigginton.

Guthrie (7-13) was tagged for six runs on 10 hits in 6 2-3 innings.

Trailing 2-1 in the fifth, the White Sox loaded the bases with no outs. Pierre hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game, but that's the only run they would get in the inning. Omar Vizquel popped out and Beckham was picked off by catcher Matt Wieters to end the inning.

Scott led off the fourth with a drive to right on a 1-1 pitch for his 25th homer of the season. Adam Jones reached first after getting hit by a pitch and went to third on Pie's single. Jones scored on Wieter's fielder's choice.

Jones led off the second inning with a walk and advanced to third on Pie's single. But Jones was left stranded at third. He wasn't able to score on Wieters' double play ball, and the inning ended on Cesar Izturis' infield groundout.

Rios singled in the bottom of the fourth and took third on Konerko's single. Rios then scored on Carlos Quentin's double play ball.

Pie made a diving catch on Pierre's ball in left field and threw to first to double up Beckham in the third inning.

Notes: Jones left the game after the top of the fourth with a contusion on his left shoulder. ... Both teams were issued warnings after Guthrie hit Rios in the seventh. ... The White Sox have had 10 or more hits in 10 straight games. ... Pierre extended his hitting streak to 12 games and finished with three hits.