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Konerko helps White Sox sweep Royals

Apr 25, 2007 - 6:49 AM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- The Chicago White Sox capitalized when they needed to the most.

Pablo Ozuna drove in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning as the White Sox completed a two-game series sweep over the Kansas City Royals with a 9-7 victory.

Darin Erstad, Paul Konerko and Juan Uribe each drove in two runs for Chicago, which endured a 1-hour, 46-minute rain delay prior to the start of the game.

Konerko started the decisive frame with a two-out walk against Royals reliever Joakim Soria (1-1) and moved to second on A.J. Pierzynski's single. Ozuna then followed with a hard shot off Soria's hip to move all runners up a base, allowing Konerko to score on Soria's throwing error to first base.

Pierzynski, who finished with three hits, then scored on the righthander's wild pitch to cap the rally in the back-and-fourth contest.

"You just have to keep playing. That's baseball," Erstad said. "Just when you think you've seen everything, then you seen something else."

Boone Logan (1-0) got the final two outs of the eighth to pick up the win and closer Bobby Jenks got the final three outs for his eighth save as the White Sox won for the sixth time in seven games.

"Overall it was a good game for us, more mentally than anything else," Chicago manager Ozzie Gullien said. "Down 4-0 in the first it would have been easy for us to say let's get the game done and go back to Chicago but we battled back."

Kansas City battled back from a 6-4 deficit to scored three runs in the seventh. Mark Grudzielanek had an RBI double, Mark Teahen added a run-scoring single and Emil Brown capped the frame with a run-scoring double.

However, Chicago third baseman Joe Crede tied the game one frame later with his solo shot - his second - to left-center off Brandon Duckworth.

"Anytime you have a game where rain is forecast it is tough conditions for everybody, you just have to deal with it," Crede said. "They (Royals) had a lot of momentum."

White Sox starter Javier Vazquez gave up four runs and seven hits in six-plus innings to remain winless in two consecutive starts.

"It's important to win games like this when everybody battles," Vazquez said. "It was a tough game but we did it. We have a good hitting team. I felt like if I held them we would have a chance. Nobody wants to be playing right now, at midnight, but we got the win."

Kansas City starter Brian Bannister allowed four runs in five hits in 4 1/3 frames in his longest outing since August 25, 2006, as a member of the New York Mets.

"I didn't pick up my teammates," Bannister said. "The runners got in scoring position and I really needed to make one big pitch and they got me both times. If I could have controlled both of those situations, it would have been a lot different outcome."