De La Rosa, 'pen team for shutout as Rockies snap ChiSox's home streak

CHICAGO (AP) -- Willy Taveras ran wild and Jorge De La Rosa gave Rockies manager Clint Hurdle an unexpected lift.

Taveras stole a career-high five bases, De La Rosa, making a spot start, pitched the best game of his career and the Colorado Rockies snapped Chicago's nine-game home winning streak with a 2-0 win over the White Sox on Saturday night.

The Rockies won despite going 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position. Taveras failed to score a run despite his five swipes. He has 29 in 31 attempts this season, most in the National League and just five shy of his career high.

"It was a close game and I got on there a couple of times and when I get on like that I am going to steal," said Taveras. "I always have the green light so I just picked the right spot to run."

De La Rosa struck out a career-high eight and allowed one hit and one walk in five innings. Reliever Jason Grilli (2-0) pitched 1 2/3 innings to earn the victory and closer Brian Fuentes pitched a scoreless ninth for his 10th save in 13 opportunities.

"I think we got more than we could've expected. First and foremost, a great outing. You saw fastball command, you saw first-pitch curveballs, you saw good sliders and changeups late in the counts for strikeouts," said Hurdle. "He made pitches and he came in one pitch under his limit. Very efficient."

De La Rosa, who came in with a 9.00 ERA in his five starts this season, allowed only a single to Brian Anderson and a walk to Paul Konerko. He threw 79 pitches, and his ERA dropped from 8.13 overall to 6.89.

Both of Colorado's runs were unearned.

"We have dealt with that for the most of the season. We won a ballgame tonight so I'm just going to move pass that one," said Hurdle. "Maybe those hits with runners in scoring position will show up [Sunday]."

Jeff Baker greeted White Sox reliever Octavio Dotel (3-4) with a double to lead off the seventh inning. Baker moved to third on Yorvit Torrealba's sacrifice bunt. After Omar Quintanilla grounded out to Konerko at first. Taveras followed with another hard grounder to first, and this time Konerko wasn't able to stop it and Baker scored. Konerko was charged with his fifth error of the season.

The Rockies got an insurance run in the ninth. Torrealba led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Taveras followed with a shot back at White Sox reliever Nick Masset. Masset bobbled the ball and then made a bad throw to first, allowing Torrealba to score.

Despite not scoring a run, Taveras was a pain for White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski.

"Everyone knows where we stand with stolen bases here. It's one of those things where he gets on he is going to go," said Pierzynski. "He's a tough out and that's why so many teams covet leadoff guys."

White Sox starter John Danks shut out the Rockies over six innings. He scattered five hits and struck out six with one walk.

"My arm felt great. I think this was the hardest I've thrown all year. Finally got my changeup back, it's been three or four starts since I've had a consistent changeup. The cutter and curveball was kind of hit and miss," Danks said.

Danks has received zero runs of support in six starts and 19 runs over his last 10 starts.

Game notes
White Sox DH Jim Thome wasn't in the starting lineup with a stiff back. Manager Ozzie Guillen expects Thome to be back in the lineup on Sunday. He got hit in pinch-hit appearance in the eighth, and was hit by a pitch. ... Pierzynski extended his hitting streak to 10 games.