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Thome, Garland lead White Sox past Yankees

Jun 5, 2007 - 4:11 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Chicago White Sox allowed the New York Yankees little time to celebrate their series win over the rival Boston Red Sox.

Jim Thome homered and Jon Garland pitched 8 1/3 strong innings to lead the White Sox to a 6-4 victory over the Yankees on Monday.

Chicago got to Yankees starter Matt DeSalvo early, knocking the rookie out with a three-run second inning which earned the club just its second win in its past nine contests.

"We certainly had no excuses tonight, except that we didn't play as well as they did," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

"I just didn't have it today," DeSalvo said. "I threw a few good pitches but they still got good wood on it. I was aggressive, I had something to prove, (but) just didn't have the stuff today."

Thome, who entered Monday's game in a 4-for-28 skid over the previous eight games, slammed a two-run blast off lefthanded reliever Ron Villone in the fourth to give the White Sox a 5-1 lead. It was Thome's second day in a row with a homer and gives him 480 for his career.

"If our bats start to come alive, I think we have to put a good winning streak on," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "That's what we've been waiting for all year."

The Yankees were coming off a momentum-swinging win at Boston on Sunday in which Alex Rodriguez won the game with a solo blast off Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth, earing them a 2-1 series win over their bitter rivals.

Garland (4-3) made sure the momentum stopped with him, allowing two runs - one earned - and seven hits, while walking three and striking out three. The veteran righthander had an almost identical start against New York on May 17, allowing one run and six hits in seven innings to earn a win.

"I either made the right pitch at the right time or got lucky," Garland said. "A lot of those double plays early helped me out big time. They allowed me to settle down a little bit."

"(Garland) has got great movement on his ball," Torre said. "He may not be overpowering, but he's got a good tail, and he can cut it. He can go to a lot of things. He did it last time against us here, and he did it tonight."

Garland 's two starts against the Yankees were sandwiched around a pair of sub-par outings in which he surrendered a combined 10 runs in 12 1/3 innings against the Oakland Athletics and Minnesota Twins.

New York jumped on the board in the first against Garland, when Derek Jeter reached on a throwing error by White Sox's second baseman Tadihito Iguchi and came home on a double by Bobby Abreu.

After a shaky first inning, the rookie DeSalvo (1-3) became unglued in the second. Paul Konerko led off with a single and moved to second when Rob Mackowiak was hit by a pitch.

Juan Uribe's single to left loaded the bases for Joe Crede. Crede grounded into a fielder's choice, scoring Konerko. Jerry Owens followed with a fielder's choice grounder which first baseman Josh Phelps threw past Jeter into center field, scoring Uribe and and leaving Owens safe at second. Iguchi followed with a single which plated Owens and chased DeSalvo from the game.

The 26-year-old righthander allowed three runs - two earned - and four hits in 1 1/3 innings to suffer his third straight defeat.

"No matter how you win, a win's a win," Guillen said. "The guys started to hit the ball better and have better at-bats. Hopefully the confidence is back."

Thome's homer in the fourth gave Garland all the breathing room he would need, and Konerko added a solo blast in the seventh to provide the winning margin. Bobby Jenks retired two batters in the ninth to pick up his 16th save.

"We swung the bats well tonight," Konerko said. "We've been scraping and battling. It was a pretty good game all-around."