Another M's lead slips away
<p>Kosuke Fukudome, left, of the Chicago White Sox is tagged out in the fourth inning by Seattle Mariners catcher Miguel Olivo on Sunday in Seattle.</p>
SEATTLE (AP) - For the second straight outing, Seattle Mariners starter Kevin Millwood was unable to hold onto a lead in a game Seattle would go on to lose.
The Mariners rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a 4-2 lead over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday afternoon. But the lead wouldn't hold as the White Sox capitalized on Millwood's (0-1) mistakes in the sixth inning to retake the lead and earn a series sweep over the Mariners with a 7-4 victory.
"It came down to the fact that when I need to make a pitch to get out of an inning or get out of a jam, I wasn't able to do it," Millwood said. "I felt good, felt my stuff was good, I just didn't make pitches when I needed to."
In his previous start, the Mariners jumped out to a 8-1 lead against Cleveland before the Indians scored seven runs off Millwood to tie the game. Seattle would go on to lose 9-8 to the Indians.
On Sunday, Adam Dunn drew a leadoff walk to start the sixth inning. Paul Konerko singled and after a groundout, Alex Rios tripled to the wall in right-center field that evened the game at 4.
A sacrifice fly by Kosuke Fukudome scored Rios from third and gave the White Sox a lead they wouldn't relinquish. Rios and Fukudome added RBI singles in the eighth against Tom Wilhelmsen.
"That was a big one," Seattle manager Eric Wedge said. "When you give it up like that you have to come right back and answer. We didn't do that."
A day after Phil Humber pitched a perfect game for the White Sox, Chicago notched its 19th victory in its last 22 games against the Mariners and second straight sweep in Seattle.
Trailing 2-0, Seattle tied it in the bottom half of the third inning. Chone Figgins led off with a walk and Ichiro Suzuki singled, setting up an RBI single by Jesus Montero and an RBI double by Alex Liddi.
Miguel Olivo and Casper Wells hit consecutive singles to lead off the fourth. With Brendan Ryan attempting to bunt, the infield was pulled up when Danks tried a pickoff throw at first that Dunn never saw coming. Danks' error allowed Olivo to score and Dustin Ackley drove in a run with a grounder for a 4-2 lead.