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Crede's sacrifice fly helps White Sox top Devil Rays

May 26, 2007 - 5:09 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- After one of his best outings in weeks, struggling Mark Buehrle wasn't able to secure a victory. But his Chicago White Sox teammates came through in dramatic fashion. Joe Crede snapped a ninth-inning tie with a walk-off sacrifice fly as the White Sox held of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with an exciting 5-4 victory on Friday night.

"I was feeling good and I'm getting my stroke back," Crede said. "Having three to four days off I was able to go to video and study." Journeyman outfielder Luis Terrero blasted a three-run homer for Chicago, which secured its fourth win in its last five contests. Tadahito Iguchi and Jim Thome led off the ninth with walks off Tampa Bay reliever Chad Orvella (0-2) to start the inning off. Brian Stokes relieved Orvella and struck out Jermaine Dye, but A.J. Pierzynski then looped a base hit to right field. The ball hung up in front of strong-armed Devil Rays right fielder Delmon Young before falling in, causing Iguchi to hold at third. But just two pitches later, Crede lofted a deep fly ball to left field, backing Carl Crawford to just in front of the warning track, allowing Iguchi to easily score the winning run. Trailing, 1-0, in the fourth inning, the White Sox got on the board thanks to Terrero, who drilled his second homer of the season off Devil Rays starter James Shields to make it 3-1. Two innings later, Iguchi added an RBI single - ending an 0-for-21 slump - to make it 4-1 for White Sox starter Mark Buehrle, who was having his best outing since tossing a no-hitter on April 18. The lefthander had made it through the seventh inning just once since and has yielded at least three earned runs each time out. Buehrle was cruising through this outing until facing Devil Rays rookie outfielder Elijah Dukes, who got his club back into the game with one swing of the bat in the seventh.

"He came through in a big moment giving us a chance to bring the tying run to the plate at that point in the game," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. Jorge Cantu singled to lead off the frame, and after Jonny Gomes fouled out and Dioner Navarro sacrificed Cantu to second, Brendan Harris was hit by a pitch, setting up Dukes' mammoth blast off Buehrle. Buehrle allowed four runs and eight hits in seven innings, striking out four and walking one.

"He got in trouble for a little while, but he threw the ball good." Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. Mike MacDougal and Matt Thornton combined to pitch a clean eighth, and closer Bobby Jenks (2-1) pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up the win. While Buehrle had just one bad inning, his counterpart Shields had an uncharacteristically bad start. The 25-year-old righthander yielded four runs and 10 hits in seven innings, while walking three and striking out two but did not figure in the decision. The lone bright spot on one of the worst staffs in the major leagues, Shields had allowed just four combined earned runs in his last three outings, while getting just an average of two runs of support entering Friday's contest. Crawford had three hits for the Devil Rays, who have lost six of their last seven games.