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Garcia, White Sox go for split of series with Mariners

Sep 24, 2006 - 2:32 PM Seattle (75-80) at Chi White Sox (86-69) 2:05 pm EDT

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Freddy Garcia and the Chicago White Sox attempt to gain a split of their four-game series against the Seattle Mariners in the finale Sunday.

In his last two starts, Garcia has not given up a run in 16 innings while yielding just two hits and two walks. The Venezuelan righthander has won four of his previous six starts, the latest a 7-0 win over Detroit on Tuesday. He struck out five while tossing eight scoreless frames.

While Garcia (15-9, 4.63 ERA) has been on a tear, the rest of the club has been going in the wrong direction, dropping the first two of this set before rallying for an 11-7 triumph Saturday. Jim Thome hit his 42nd homer and Paul Konerko highlighted a five-run eighth with a two-run shot for the White Sox, who tasted victory for just the second time in nine outings.

Even with the win things still look rather bleak for Chicago, which is now 5 1/2 games behind Minnesota in the American League wild card berth and seven back of Detroit in the Central.

The Mariners will once again try to hurt Chicago's playoff chances with rookie Ryan Feierabend (0-0, 0.00) on the mound. This will be the 21-year-old lefthander's first career start. He threw four scoreless innings of relief, but did not factor in the decision of a 7-4 setback at Kansas City on September 16.

Feierabend, who is replacing injured lefthander Jarrod Washburn in the rotation, gave up a hit and a walk while striking out two.

Adrian Beltre extended his hitting streak to 13 games with his 21st homer and Eduardo Perez added two RBI for Seattle, which had a four-game winning streak snapped Saturday.