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Washburn shuts down slumping White Sox

May 2, 2007 - 6:31 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Jarrod Washburn made sure the Chicago White Sox bats' stayed as cold as the south side in January.

Washburn pitched seven solid innings and Richie Sexson broke out of a long slump to help the Seattle Mariners earn a 5-2 victory over the White Sox on Tuesday.

Washburn (2-2), who allowed just two runs and four hits, shut down a Chicago team that came into the game hitting a league-worst .225.

Washburn's stellar performance came on the heels of a complete game shutout against Oakland on Wednesday.

"He's throwing the ball well and hitting his spots and made only two bad pitches tonight," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. "He's been doing that in all his starts. He's 2-2 but could very well be 4-0."

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen expressed his frustration with the lack offense.

"With all due respect, anybody who pitches against the White Sox right now looks like Cy Young, that's the truth," Guillen said. "Washburn threw the ball really well, but we didn't swing the bats well. We're not hitting and it's hard to win games when you've got four hits every day.

Rookie Brandon Morrow pitched a scoreless eighth and J.J. Putz threw a 1-2-3 ninth for his fourth save of the season.

Even slugger Paul Konerko, who has had great success against Washburn, hitting .385 with four homers in 39 career at-bats, could not help the struggling White Sox, who have lost three straight. The 2005 postseason star went 0-for-4 as Chicago managed just six baserunners all game.

Adrian Beltre plated a run in the fourth with a groundout and Sexson, who had been mired in a 2-for-33 slump, followed with a deep home run to left off Chicago starter Javier Vazquez that gave the Mariners a 3-1 lead.

Hargrove admitted he has had to be patient with his struggling slugger.

"It's easy to get frustrated with a hitter like Richie who is hitting .120 or .130 like he was for a while," Hargrove said. "To get the good you've got to be able to put up with the bad and given the time, Richie is going to put up his numbers. With Richie there is more good than bad."

Sexson's homer was his 12th extra-base hit of the year and gave him 16 runs batted in but is hitting just .150 (11-for-73) on the season.

"You do everything right and put a good swing on it and the results aren't there," Sexson said. "Hopefully, this month and for the rest of the season the balls will start finding some holes.

"We were able to scrape across one run then we got the big blast by Richie and that was good because it put them in a hole," Washburn said. "Vazquez was throwing the ball real good so it was good to get a few off him."

Ibanez, who had two hits and three RBI, drove in a pair of insurance runs in the eighth with a single to center.

Jose Vidro extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a fourth-inning single for Seattle, which has won six of their last seven games.

Chicago got a spark from an unexpected source when Luis Terrero, who was recalled from Class AAA Charlotte just prior to the game, homered to left field in the third to open the scoring. There only other run was a solo homer by A.J. Pierzynski in the seventh that cut the lead to 3-2.

Vazquez (2-1) suffered his first loss of the year as he allowed four runs and six hits in 7 1/3 innings with five strikeouts.

"It was a good effort, I guess," Vazquez said. "I kept us in the game, but we didn't get the win. I made one mistake to Sexson. It was right down the middle and he took care of it."