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GAME LOG
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Mike Mussina usually has a tough time beating
the Chicago White Sox when he's healthy.
Riddled with flulike symptoms, he didn't have a chance.
|  | | Frank Thomas launches a three-run homer off Mike Mussina. Thomas has an AL-best 37 homers and is second in RBI with 111. |
Frank Thomas hit his AL-leading 37th homer and Jim Parque finally
got his 10th victory as Chicago beat Mussina and the Baltimore Orioles
7-3 Wednesday night.
Mussina (7-13) felt awful before the game but gamely attempted
to pitch anyway. He was finally lifted after giving six runs and
seven hits in only four innings, his shortest stint of the season.
"He felt terrible starting the game and it just didn't happen
for him," Orioles manager Mike Hargrove said. "We had no choice -- we had nobody else to start."
Thomas hit a three-run shot in the second inning to put the
White Sox up 6-0. He has two homers and eight RBI in his last two
games and ranks second in the AL with 111 RBI.
Parque (10-4) allowed three runs, five hits and two walks in
six-plus innings. The left-hander was 0-2 in five starts since July
15, including three straight games without a decision.
"Tonight was a step in the right direction," White Sox manager
Jerry Manuel said. "He still needs a lot of pitches to get outs,
and that worries me. But all in all, it was a better effort
tonight."
Bill Simas retired all six batters he faced and Keith Foulke
worked the ninth.
Catcher Brook Fordyce homered for Baltimore, his fifth since
being traded from the White Sox in the July 29 trade that sent
Charles Johnson and Harold Baines to Chicago.
But the White Sox put the Orioles in an early hole by teeing off
against Mussina, who fell to 9-11 lifetime against Chicago. It was
the third straight defeat and sixth in seven starts for Mussina,
who finished second in the Cy Young balloting behind Boston's Pedro
Martinez last year.
Hargrove was surprised that Mussina made it through the fourth
inning.
"Moose did a good job going as far as he did," he said. "It
was obvious that he was weak. He showed a lot of heart going out
there."
Mussina was in trouble from the outset. Ray Durham led off the
first inning with the first of his three singles, Thomas walked and
Magglio Ordonez got an infield hit to load the bases before Herbert
Perry hit a two-run double.
Jose Valentin singled in a run in the second before Thomas hit a
1-2 pitch an estimated 415 feet to dead center. Although he flied
out in the fourth, Thomas is 25-for-62 (.403) with eight homers and
17 RBI lifetime against Mussina.
"The pitch was supposed to be down and away. That was one
mistake that hurt us," Fordyce said. "Mike usually doesn't miss
by that much."
The Orioles closed to 6-2 in the third when Melvin Mora tripled
in a run and scored on a balk. Fordyce chased Parque with his 10th
homer of the season leading off the seventh.
"I kind of struggled in the first few innings and I finally
found what I've been searching for the last two outings," Parque
said. "I was trying to find it and it finally clicked. I found the
key or something. I don't know what, but I found it."
Chicago went up 7-3 in the eighth on a single by Ordonez and a
double by Paul Konerko.
Game notes
Ordonez went 2-for-4 and is on a 19-for-34 tear over his
last eight games. ... Baltimore has lost five of seven. ... Thomas
is just four homers short of matching his career high. ... The
Orioles have allowed four runs or more in an inning 61 times this
season.
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Chi. White Sox Clubhouse
Baltimore Clubhouse
Ripken close to ending six-week streak on disabled list
RECAPS
Toronto 8
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Boston 4
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Baltimore 3
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