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Buehrle finally notches 100th career win

Jun 10, 2007 - 10:57 PM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Mark Buehrle waited long enough to reach the century mark. Buehrle finally recorded his 100th career win as the Chicago White Sox avoided a series sweep with a 6-3 victory over the Houston Astros on Sunday afternoon.

Buehrle became the fifth pitcher in the majors to earn each of his first 100 career wins in a White Sox uniform, joining Red Faber, Joe Horten, Ted Lyons and Ed Walsh. Buehrle (3-3) yielded one run and six hits with four strikeouts and one walk in eight innings en route to picking up his first win since April 23 at Kansas City .

"I think it's better for the team to win, because we've been struggling so much," Buehrle said. "Obviously, it's good to get that 100th win, but with the way we've been playing the last couple weeks, it's good that the offense showed up, defense was behind me, and everyone showed up."

The win also snapped a five-game slide for the White Sox.

"This was a big win," Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We need it. Hopefully, with this win we stay on a roll and put together a winning streak." The lefthander has struggled to break through since registering the club's 16th no-hitter on April 18 here, going 1-3 over eight outings prior to this one.

"Hopefully for win 101, we don't have to wait two months," Guillen said. "Hopefully he gets it in the next outing." A three-time All-Star, Buehrle's only mistake came in the seventh inning when he gave up a solo blast to Houston 's Mike Lamb. It was Buehrle's 10th homer allowed in 12 starts. Chicago opened the scoring in the second as Paul Konerko stroked a leadoff double and scored on Luis Terrero's RBI single off Houston starter Wandy Rodriguez for a 1-0 edge. The duo continued to give Buehrle run support as Konerko delivered his ninth blast of the season in the fourth and Terrero also went deep for his fourth homer one frame later to make it 3-0.

"With this win, we can breathe now," Terrero said. "We have to feel comfortable and just go out there and have fun, and that's what we want to do from here out." Still in the fifth, Juan Uribe registered his sixth shot and Konerko added a run-scoring single as the White Sox built a 5-0 cushion.

"You need to drive balls as a team, to put some runs on the board," Konerko said. "There needs to be some home runs. There needs to be some pop there, and we haven't been doing that. Hopefully, we have a lot coming our way because we haven't been doing that." Just a triple shy of hitting for the cycle, Konerko grounded out in his final at-bat, failing to notch his first three-bagger since May 16, 2000, in a 4-0 victory over the New York Yankees. Chicago closer Bobby Jenks picked up his 17th save by cleaning up the mess made by teammates Dewon Day and Boone Logan in the ninth.

In his first appearance against the White Sox, Rodriguez (3-6) gave up five runs and seven hits in five frames. It was the second time this season that the Dominican southpaw surrendered at least two homers.

"I think (Rodriguez) is locating as well as he can," Astros manager Phil Garner said. "I thought he made a bunch of good pitches on the inside half of the plate that we didn't get the call on. So that of course forces you back over the plate and that's where he got hurt."