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White Sox use home runs to rout Pirates

Jun 18, 2008 - 5:42 AM By Gene Chamberlain PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Jim Thome took another step up the all-time home run list with his 521st on Tuesday while Jermaine Dye, Joe Crede and Orlando Cabrera also homered to power the Chicago White Sox to a 16-5 interleague victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Thome's three-run blast to right field off reliever Marino Salas during a five-run seventh inning tied him with Ted Williams and Willie McCovey for 16th place on the all-time list.

"I remember my dad talking about Ted Williams, what a great hitter he was and just the great things he did," Thome said. "It's something hard to imagine being in a class or in a same group with those men."

The White Sox posted season highs in runs, hits (19) and extra-base hits (11) while matching their season best with four homers. The outburst came just one game after they stranded 11 baserunners in a 5-3 loss to Colorado.

"They didn't swing at any bad pitches at all," Pittsburgh starter Ian Snell said. "It's not the same as the National League, where you can cover the ball over the plate just a little bit and they swing."

"It was a nice night and we scored a lot of runs, and it's even more special when you do that," Thome said. "We picked away, we got some guys on, we hit some home runs. All in all, when you look at it, offensively, we did a lot of good things."

Cabrera had three hits and three RBI while Dye and Crede each added two hits and drove in three runs.

Starter Javier Vazquez (7-5) twice let leads slip away early before coasting to the win. The righthander yielded five runs and five hits with two walks and three strikeouts in six innings.

Vazquez gave up hits in only two of his six innings, but the Pirates bunched together four straight during a four-run second to take a 4-2 lead. Jason Michaels' two-run double, an RBI single by Doug Mientkiewicz and Nate McLouth's sacrifice fly accounted for the runs.

"Besides the second inning, I thought I threw the ball better, but the guys went out there and put on a show hitting the ball," Vazquez said. "As a pitcher, if you give up four in that inning, you have to forget about it. There was a lot left in the game."

After the White Sox moved ahead with a three-run third inning highlighted by Jermaine Dye's leadoff homer, Pittsburgh's Jose Bautista hit his sixth blast with two outs in the fourth to knot the contest at 5-5.

Crede's fifth-inning line drive to left off Snell (3-7) was misplayed by left fielder Michaels into an RBI double that snapped the tie and sparked a stretch of 11 unanswered runs. An inning later, Thome and Swisher each doubled prior to Crede's 15th home run of the season - a two-run shot to left off reliever Franquelis Osoria.

Carlos Quentin was the only White Sox starter without a hit, going 0-for-2 with three walks. However, he drove in the game's final run with a sacrifice fly and also scored twice for Chicago, which won for just the second time in seven games.

"Hopefully, this week is when we explode and swing the bat the way we know we can swing the bat," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "The thing is, it's always more fun when you swing the bats well. I think all those guys put a good at-bat together. The thing is, we have to do it for more than one game."