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Garland hurls three-hit shutout as White Sox blank Royals

Sep 27, 2007 - 4:08 AM By Rob Czajkowskyj PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHICAGO (Ticker) - Jon Garland hurled his sixth career shutout as the Chicago White Sox posted a 3-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday.

Jim Thome hit his 505th career homer and Jermaine Dye added a two-run blast for Chicago, which moved ahead of Kansas City for fourth place in the American League Central.

Garland (10-13) kept the Royals batters off-balance for most of the game, scattering just three hits and two walks for his second complete game of 2007. The righthander, who struck out two, reached 10-plus victories for the sixth consecutive season.

"I think Jon has thrown the ball outstanding the last month, he's been more aggressive," Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We always believe in this kid and we know what he can do."

Garland credited catcher Toby Hall for calling a good game.

"We got on the same page and (Toby) was calling pitches I liked," Garland said. "I had some luck involved tonight."

The eight-year veteran, who has won seven straight at home vs. the Royals, also has tallied 200-plus innings for the fourth year in a row.

In the bottom of the first, Thome drove the first pitch he saw from Zack Greinke into the right field seats to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. The blast moved Thome past Eddie Murray for sole possession of 22nd place on the all-time homer list.

The White Sox increased their margin in the fourth when Thome led off with a walk and Dye belted a drive over the left field wall to finish the scoring.

Greinke (7-7), who had no run support, allowed three runs, seven hits and two walks in five innings to fall back to .500.

"(Greinke) was good enough to win," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "He hung a breaking ball to Dye and the home run to Thome was thigh-high over the plate. The story tonight was we didn't do anything offensively against Garland. Their whole staff has been effective against us."

Rookie Jerry Owens, who went 2-for-4, swiped two bases to get to 32, the most among all rookies in the majors in 2007.

Singles by David DeJesus in the third, Mark Teahen in the fourth and Mark Grudzielanek in the sixth were the only hits the Royals tallied against Garland.