June 30, 2004

BY DOUG PADILLA Staff Reporter

MINNEAPOLIS -- With the savior waiting in the wings to start today, the resident White Sox ace took the mound Tuesday to secure his position and reverse his fortune.

As Freddy Garcia watched his first game in a Sox uniform, Mark Buehrle searched for the form that helped him earn pitcher of the month honors in May.

He seemed to find it and more, putting the Sox in first place for the first time since June 15 by shutting down the Twins in a 6-2 victory at the Metrodome. The Sox and Twins are now tied atop the American League Central, although the Sox have one less defeat. The Sox are now 5-3 against the Twins this season and 4-1 at Minnesota.

WHITE SOX 6

TWINS 2

Buehrle (8-2) gave up just two runs on eight hits with no walks in eight innings. Shingo Takatsu closed out the victory in a non-save situation to extend his scoreless streak to 261/3 innings.

And while most of the credit goes to Buehrle's pinpoint accuracy, give an assist to a heating balm that he tried for the first time Tuesday to help him get warm in the bullpen. The rub made Buehrle's skin so hot, he couldn't sit still between innings and worked even faster than usual as the Sox' victory came in two hours, four minutes.

''It was so hot I had to come in from warming up and put some Noxzema and some wet towels on there,'' Buehrle said. ''It felt like I had second-degree burns on my skin.

''When the umpires were coming out, I was walking back and forth [in the tunnel] and they said 'Dang Buehrle, you stink.' I said it was going to be about an hour, 15-minute game because I wasn't going to stand still out there. It burned that bad.''

What also helped was that during a bullpen session this weekend, Buehrle said he experimented with the arm angle on his slider as well as making a few other minor adjustments. The left-hander was trying to distance himself from a 7.71 ERA over his last four starts that made his overall ERA shoot from 3.30 to 4.49.

It all seemed to work as Buehrle's quick-pitch style not only got Twins batters to swing early in the count, he was able to deliver just his third eight-inning outing of the season.

''He threw the ball well today and that's what we expect from him,'' manager Ozzie Guillen said. ''With Freddy here, hopefully he can get everybody pumped up. That happened last year with the [Florida] Marlins. When Dontrelle Willis started throwing well, everybody on the staff picked it up.''

Buehrle retired the first seven Twins batters before Joe Mauer delivered an infield single. They scored their first run on a home run in the fourth inning by Corey Koskie and another in the sixth on a two-out single by Torii Hunter.

But the Sox still found themselves in a fight against Carlos Silva, who entered leading all Twins starters in victories with eight.

The Sox came in knowing they were the rare team that has had Silva's number this season. Silva had just four defeats before Tuesday and two of them were to the Sox as he gave up six runs (all earned) in a May 16 defeat and six runs (four earned) in a defeat five days later.

Take away his three starts against the Sox and Silva has an 8-2 record with a 3.31 ERA.

So it came as no surprise to see the Sox jump on the right-hander early. They took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a two-out RBI double by Carlos Lee.

Silva (8-5) settled down to retire seven of the next eight Sox batters before Jose Valentin delivered a home run to left, his 16th. Koskie's home run cut the lead to 2-1 before a two-out RBI single by Paul Konerko in the sixth gave the Sox a 3-1 lead.

But the pesky Twins came right back against Buehrle as they cut the lead to 3-2 on Hunter's RBI single.

The Sox wedged some distance in the seventh with another big two-out hit. The Sox nearly wasted a leadoff bloop double by Joe Crede when Jamie Burke popped up a bunt and Timo Perez flied out to center. But Juan Uribe hit a first-pitch home run to right, his 11th of the season and first since June 19 at Montreal.

The victory made Buehrle 13-4 in his career against the Twins, but don't look for him to go back to the burning balm.

''I learned my lesson,'' Buehrle said. ''Everybody said to [use it again] but I can't put myself through that again.''