Rangers Romp Reeling White Sox 10-3

CHICAGO (AP) _ Michael Young and Mark Teixeira hit back-to-back homers to lead the Texas Rangers to a 10-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night. <br/><br/>Jim Thome hit his 462nd career home

Friday, July 21st 2006, 10:29 pm

By: News On 6

CHICAGO (AP) _ Michael Young and Mark Teixeira hit back-to-back homers to lead the Texas Rangers to a 10-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night.

Jim Thome hit his 462nd career home run and Joe Crede also homered for the White Sox, who have lost eight of their last 10 games and are 1-6 since the All-Star break.

Kevin Mench hit a three-run homer in the eighth for the Rangers and Brad Wilkerson added a solo shot in the ninth.

With the loss, the White Sox trail the first-place Detroit Tigers by 6 1/2 games in the AL Central, but they maintained a 2 1/2-game lead over the New York Yankees in the wild card.

Trailing 1-0, the Rangers tied the game in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Wilkerson. With two outs and a runner on, White Sox starter Mark Buehrle walked Ian Kinsler and Young followed with his eighth homer, a three-run shot to left. Three pitches later, Teixeira followed with his 13th home run to left-center, giving the Rangers a 5-1 lead. Teixeira broke out of a 2-for-20 slump with the home run.

The Rangers have hit consecutive home runs eight times this season.

Buehrle (9-8) was booed as he walked back to the dugout after retiring the Rangers in the third. He pitched seven innings, allowing five runs and seven hits. He had four strikeouts and walked two.

Buehrle has lost his last four starts and during the span he has given up 27 runs in 21 1-3 innings.

Young added an RBI double in the eighth off White Sox reliever David Riske and Mench made it 9-3 with the three-run homer off Neal Cotts. Mench was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, while Young finished with four RBIs.

Ron Mahay (1-1) earned the victory for the Rangers with two scoreless innings.

Rick Bauer pitched 2 1-3 hitless innings for his second save.

With two outs and nobody on in the sixth, Mahay was replaced by Wes Littleton, who gave up Crede's 20th homer that cut the Rangers' lead to 5-3.

Thome hit his 32nd homer of the season on a 2-0 pitch in the first inning off John Wasdin. Thome tied Jose Canseco for 27th on the all-time list and gave the White Sox a 1-0 lead.

Notes: Rangers 3B Hank Blalock got the night off from the field and was the DH. He was 0-for-4. ... Wasdin pitched 3 2-3 innings, allowing two runs and five hits. He struck out four and walked two.