Sox suffer woodshed whipping A's spank Buehrle for 8 runs in 22/3 innings

Athletics 16

White Sox 1

OAKLAND, Calif.--The White Sox' westward woe continued Saturday asbaseball's best hitting team learned what it feels like to be on thewrong side of a blowout.

The Oakland Athletics hammered ace Mark Buehrle, tying a franchiserecord for home runs in an inning with four in the third, and ranaway with a 16-1 victory.

The Sox have lost the opening two games of a three-game series inthe Bay Area, are 1-4 on the road against American League Westopponents and have lost nine consecutive games to the A's dating tolast season.

What can you do?" asked first baseman Paul Konerko, who extendedhis hitting streak to a career-high 15 games with a seventh-inningdouble. They just took us back behind the shed today."

What the A's did was take the Sox back to their days of spring-training slugfests, in which pitching meltdowns were the norm.

I felt like I was playing in Arizona today," catcher Sandy AlomarJr. said. [Buehrle] didn't have great command today. His changeup washigh, and his cutter wasn't sharp."

That left him with a fastball against the wide-eyed A's.

I felt like I was throwing the ball pretty good, I was justfalling behind in the count," Buehrle said. You get 2-0, and allthese guys know fastball is coming and they're hacking. The floodgates opened up."

Buehrle wasn't the only one left drowning. The Sox used fivepitchers, with all but Antonio Osuna yielding a run.

Buehrle lasted 22/3 innings, the shortest start of his career. Thethree home runs tied for the most he has allowed in an outing, andthe eight runs tied a career high.

You're trying to throw strikes, get the first-pitch strike,"Buehrle said. There is nothing you can change if you're missing thefirst-pitch strike. That's the way it goes."

Buehrle was followed by left-hander Mike Porzio, who allowed threeruns and five hits in 11/3 innings. Frank Menechino sent Porzio'sfirst pitch over the wall in left field for a two-run homer.

Osuna didn't allow a hit during his two innings, but Gary Glovercame in to yield a run in one inning. Damaso Marte closed out thedebacle by allowing four runs and three hits in one inning.

If the beating looked familiar, it's because the last time the A'sscored 16 runs it took place in April of last season at ComiskeyPark.

Every now and then, you'll run into somebody who has your numberor you have their number," manager Jerry Manuel said. We just haven'treally played well here. We haven't pitched well. We haven't hit.Sometimes that happens. You just hope you don't have to come out heretoo often."

Magglio Ordonez gave the Sox their only run with a solo home run,his fifth, to lead off the second inning against starter Mike Fyhrie.

Fyhrie, who entered the game with an 11.57 ERA and no careervictories, was a welcome stand-in for left-hander Mark Mulder, whohas a forearm strain. As it turns out, Mulder could have gotten thejob done with this kind of run support.

Fyhrie allowed four hits in seven innings against the team with amajors-best .305 batting average. But Manuel wasn't ready to give himas much credit as he gave to Cory Lidle, who started Friday.

I know [Friday] I thought it was more Lidle than our hitters,"Manuel said of an 6-4 loss. Today, I would tend to disagree withthat. I thought we were more impatient than normal and kind of gotaway from our plan of hitting the ball to the opposite field.

We have some things that we need to work on. It's early, andhopefully we can get them ironed out."