Wigginton error too costly

Mark Buehrle led White Sox to close victory.

The Chicago White Sox seized the initiative to carry them to a 4-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. The victory - backed by Mark Buehrle's strong pitching - moved the White Sox (47-43) within one and a half games of the American League (AL) Central Division-leading Detroit Tigers (48-41). "It just seems like everything is clicking for us," Buehrle said after allowing just one run and striking out four in seven-plus innings.

"We're getting timely hitting. Hopefully, everything keeps going like this and we can get to first." But the Orioles paid the price for an error - by first baseman Ty Wigginton - cost them four runs. After Alexei Ramirez's grounder, Wigginton allowed a throw from shortstop Cesar Izturis to skip off his glove and into foul territory, putting Ramirez on first. "It's a play that needs to be made. In my opinion, it's one more error than a first baseman should make all year," Wigginton said.

Three pitches later, Jermaine Dye homered to give the White Sox a 2-1 advantage. Chicago boosted the lead to 4-1 with five more hits, all consecutive, as AJ Pierzynski and Gordon Beckham singled home runs. The White Sox lost two other potential runs when, on consecutive plays, they had runners thrown out at home plate. Paul Konerko was out when he tried to score off Chris Getz's single and on the next play, Getz was tagged out at home when he attempted to score from second on Beckham's single.

"I've never seen a guy get thrown out at the plate twice in less than 30 seconds," said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. In other games, CC Sabathia came out on top of a classic pitching duel with Justin Verlander as the New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers 2-1 to pull within two games of the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox, meanwhile, fell 6-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays as Marc Rzepczynski (1-1) got his first career victory. Scott Baker produced an excellent start to pitch the Minnesota Twins to a 4-1 win over the Texas Rangers.

* With agencies