White Sox use 16-hit, four-homer attack to pound Cardinals

CHICAGO (AP) -- Putting up football-like numbers for the second straight game, the Chicago White Sox's offense made it another miserable night for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Even the White Sox are shaking their heads at the double-digit outbursts against one of the best teams in the NL.

"We don't feel like we're doing too much different than when we were scoring three or four runs a game," Paul Konerko said after Wednesday night's 13-5 win that followed a 20-6 victory the night before.

The 33 runs over two games are the second most in club history, one shy of the record.

"When you got all eight or nine guys swinging the bat well, you are going to score some runs," said Konerko, who had one of four Chicago homers and four RBI.

"You don't really think it's going to be 13 or 20 or anything like that. That's when you become real dangerous, when you got the whole lineup going."

Jim Thome, Joe Crede and Juan Uribe also homered and the White Sox pounded Jason Marquis for 13 runs and 14 hits in five innings, ballooning his ERA from 4.55 to 5.53 in one game.

"It was a bad night all the way around," Marquis said. "Our bullpen is a little short right now. You got to go out there and eat the innings up. If that means I've got to take a little beating while I'm at it, so be it."

The White Sox scored 11 runs with 12 hits in the third inning during Tuesday night's victory that featured 24 hits. On Wednesday, they scored four in the first and five in the second to take control early and finished with 16 hits, four by Thome.

"We talked about all year that we have a lot of guys who can pick each other up and that's been a key for our offense," Thome said. "It's hard to swing the bat well all year long. It's good when you have guys step up and do the job and we've had that."

Marquis (9-5), who had won six straight decisions, was pounded one night after the White Sox scored nine runs and had 10 hits off Mark Mulder in 2 1/3 innings. It was Marquis' first loss since May 8.

Mark Buehrle (8-4) benefited from the offensive outburst in his first start against the team he grew up rooting for in St. Charles, Mo. Buehrle gave up 10 hits and four runs in seven innings.

"Getting early runs. There is nothing better than that," Buehrle said. "Everything they're throwing up to the plate, we're hitting."

So Taguchi and Jim Edmonds homered off Buehrle, and former White Sox reserve Timo Perez connected off Matt Thornton in the eighth.

"We've got some runs on the board, but we haven't been able to get them out," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said.

Edmonds had to leave the game with a mild concussion in the third inning after crashing into the wall trying to catch Crede's homer, his third in two nights. Edmonds is day-to-day.

The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead on Taguchi's first-inning homer before the White Sox's offense got rolling in the bottom half.

Scott Podsednik started a string of four straight hits with a double. Tadahito Iguchi had an RBI single, Thome doubled and Konerko put the White Sox ahead to stay with his 18th homer, a three-run shot to left.

On Tuesday night the White Sox had seven straight hits off Mulder. In the second inning Wednesday, they got five in a row off Marquis as Rob Mackowiak, Uribe and Podsednik all singled, Iguchi hit a two-run double and Thome a two-run homer to make it 9-3. Edmonds had a solo homer in the second for St. Louis and Aaron Miles an RBI single.

Crede homered in the third, Konerko singled in another run in the fourth and Uribe homered in the fifth.

Hector Luna had an RBI single for the Cardinals in the sixth.

Game notes
The White Sox have scored at least eight runs in six straight games, a franchise record. ... White Sox rookie CF Brian Anderson dropped his appeal and began serving a five-game suspension for his role in a brawl with the Cubs last month. ... Cards manager Tony La Russa said he expects Albert Pujols to begin playing at least by Monday -- if not sooner -- when the Cardinals open a three-game series at home against the Indians. ... Konerko left the game in the sixth, four innings after he'd fouled a pitch off his right leg that he said was stiff after the game. His homer was the 221st of his career with the White Sox, tying him for second in franchise history with Harold Baines. ... Anthony Reyes will start Thursday for the Cardinals.