Garland, Konerko help ChiSox get past feisty Indians

CHICAGO (AP) -- White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen wasn't happy despite his team making up ground in the AL Central.

Paul Konerko homered twice and Jon Garland pitched six innings to help the Chicago White Sox hold off the Cleveland Indians 10-8 Saturday night.

Garland (17-4) left with a 10-1 lead but the Indians battled back against the White Sox bullpen with a seven-run seventh inning. Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a three-run homer for Cleveland, his third of the season.

"It was a little disappointing win. A big one. You get a game like that and all of sudden you get to the point where it was, it was a little [embarrassing]. I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed because I'm one that brought those guys in. We expect better outings from them. We have to be better than that if we want to win this thing, obviously, we have to be on the top of our game everyday," said Guillen.

Garland yielded five hits and one run for his 17th victory, tying Minnesota's Johan Santana and the Yankees' Chien-Ming Wang for the major league lead. He struck out six and didn't walk a batter.

Juan Uribe and Jermaine Dye also homered and Tadahito Iguchi had three hits for the White Sox, who stayed a half-game behind Minnesota in the AL wild-card race and moved within 3½ games of the AL Central-leading Tigers.

"We've always been right there. It's a matter of us going out there and rallying off a good streak of wins. We really haven't been able to put it together all year," said Garland. "With the way the guys looked at the plate tonight, got that confidence going and swinging the bats hopefully we can rattle off a few more games."

Mike MacDougal pitched the eighth inning and got two outs in the ninth and Matt Thornton got one out for his second save in five opportunities. Chicago did not use closer Bobby Jenks, who has blown his last two save opportunities.

"It was a gut feeling. I liked the way (MacDougal) was throwing the ball," said Guillen.

Before the game, the Indians learned that designated hitter Travis Hafner will miss the rest of the season with a broken right hand. Hafner tied a major league record with six grand slams this season. He hit .308 with 42 home runs and 117 RBI.

The White Sox had a brief scare in the sixth inning when Dye made a running catch into the right-field fence. Dye, went down for a minute, but after speaking with Guillen and a team trainer, stayed in the game.

Indians starter Fausto Carmona (1-9) gave up a single to Iguchi and walked Jim Thome in the first inning. Konerko, coming off a four-hit night on Friday, hit Carmona's 2-0 pitch deep into the left-field bleachers to give the White Sox a 3-0 lead. It was Konerko's 31st of the season.

In the first three games of the series, Konerko is 8-for-13 with two home runs and six RBI.

With two outs in the second inning, Scott Podsednik singled up the middle and stole second and Iguchi followed with an RBI single.

Dye hit a run-scoring triple and Thome followed with an RBI single in the fourth inning off reliever Brian Slocum, giving the White Sox a 7-1 lead.

It was Carmona's first start in the majors since being demoted after serving as the Indians' closer for a brief stretch. In a six-day span from July 31-Aug. 5, Carmona blew all three of his save opportunities, allowing seven runs and five hits -- including two game-ending homers.

Carmona gave up five runs and seven hits in three innings against Chicago.

"He had trouble more so with two outs just finishing off innings. I just felt his tempo was good at time and other times he got out of sync," said Indians manager Eric Wedge.

Game notes
In his last six starts, Garland is 5-0 with a 1.44 ERA. ... Chicago's Joe Crede missed his third straight game with lower back pain. He is day to day. ... Konerko has 101 RBI and has driven in 100 or more runs in three straight seasons and four times in his career. ... Iguchi extended his hitting streak to 11 games. ... Indians CF Grady Sizemore made a spectacular diving catch on the warning track, robbing Brian Anderson of extra bases in the fifth inning. ... Wedge was ejected in the ninth inning for arguing with Hunter Wendlestedt.