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Dye goes deep twice as White Sox pound Indians

May 22, 2008 - 4:48 AM By Gene Chamberlain PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHICAGO (Ticker) - Jermaine Dye homered twice - including a three-run shot off Paul Byrd to key a five-run, sixth-inning rally - as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Cleveland Indians, 7-2, on Wednesday.

The victory was the seventh straight for Chicago while Cleveland dropped its fifth consecutive contest. The winning streak is the longest for the White Sox since they won nine straight from June 15-24, 2006, which is also the last time the team was five games over .500.

"The main thing is we've got to keep coming out every day ready to play and not worry about what we're doing," Dye said. "Just try to get runs on the board for our pitchers and give them a chance to win."

Chicago's winning streak coincides with manager Ozzie Guillen's decision to drastically alter his batting order to feature Carlos Quentin batting third and Dye in the cleanup spot.

Dye is hitting .407 with five home runs and 10 RBI over his last 14 games while Quentin has surged to the American League home run lead with 12.

"I guess we put the guys who are swinging the bat well back-to-back," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.

Dye added his eighth homer of the season in the seventh off reliever Jorge Julio to give the White Sox a 6-2 advantage. The two blasts gave him his first multi-homer game of the season and the 18th of his career, while ending a personal 10-game drought without a home run.

The pair of homers by Dye and a solo blast by Jim Thome helped make a winner of pitcher Javier Vazquez (5-3), who yielded two runs and four hits with a walk and seven strikeouts over seven innings.

"Every time it's a game like that and somebody comes up big like JD (Dye) did there, it just pumps everybody up and pumps the team up," Vazquez said. "That three-run shot there made a huge difference to me. Every time our team scores, I want to go out there and shut the other team out."

Cleveland mounted some early offense in the form of rookie Michael Aubrey's second career homer and Travis Hafner's RBI double.

The White Sox then began their rally off Byrd (2-4).

Byrd, who did not allow a hit through 4 2/3 innings, started to falter in the sixth inning. Orlando Cabrera led off the inning with a single and moved to second when A.J. Pierzynski drew a walk.

Quentin followed with a grounder to third that could have started a 5-4-3 double play and make things much easier for Byrd, but first base umpire Paul Schrieber ruled that Quentin beat the throw to first.

The call appeared to rattle the righthander, who served up Dye's first homer in the next at-bat. Thome and Paul Konerko each followed with singles to end Byrd's once-promising night after 5 1/3 innings.

"(Byrd) had 55 pitches through five innings and it got away from him in the sixth," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "He made a bad pitch to Dye and he took care of it."

"The last couple years, this team has been like this," Dye said. "We may get shut out for four or five or six innings and then all of the sudden, the flood gates open."

In the seventh, Dye went deep again - ending Jorge Julio's short relief stint - and Thome greeted Craig Breslow with a homer of his own one batter later. It was the third time this season the White Sox hit back-to-back home runs.

"It helps knowing you've got a guy like Thome behind you," Dye said. "Even though he's been struggling at the plate, he can still hit one out of the park."