The White Sox fought for pitching ace Mark Buehrle with their bats Monday, making their four-game sweep at Baltimore even more special.
After Buehrle was ejected in the sixth inning for allegedly throwing at the Orioles’ B.J. Surhoff, snapping his impressive streak of working at least six innings in 49 consecutive starts, the Sox rallied for four runs and a 6-3 victory.
“They won that one for Buehrle,” manager Ozzie Guillen said of the Sox, who recorded two four-game road sweeps in the same season for the first time since 1954.
The Sox (69-35) were irate when plate umpire Brian Gorman ejected Buehrle for hitting Surhoff with two outs and a runner at first and the Sox trying to protect a 2-1 lead.
But more irritating to the Sox was that Buehrle’s ejection came after teammate A.J. Pierzynski was hit on the right elbow by a pitch from Daniel Cabrera and no warning was issued.
Reliever Luis Vizcaino struck out Chris Gomez to protect the one-run lead, and then the Sox’s offense took over.
Timo Perez hit an RBI double in the seventh, but that paled in comparison to Pierzynski’s home run off reliever Jorge Julio that ignited a three-run eighth. Guillen raised his hands when Pierzynski’s drive cleared the fence to give the Sox a 4-1 lead.
The Sox scored 31 runs in the series and played the final two games without leadoff batter Scott Podsednik, who rested his sore legs but will return to the lineup Tuesday night against Toronto.
“Have you seen what this offense is doing without me?” Podsednik said.
