KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jake Peavy settled down after a rocky first inning and pitched into the ninth to win his third straight start, leading the White Sox past the Kansas City Royals 5-4 on Saturday night.After the start was delayed 61 minutes by rain, Peavy (3-2) gave up a three-run double to Alberto Callaspo in the first inning and Billy Butler’s homer in the third. But the right-hander allowed only three singles after that before he was pulled with one out in the ninth.Matt Thornton got two outs for his first save of the season.The White Sox, who rank last in the AL in hitting, batted around in a four-run seventh — with Ramon Castro’s two-run single the key hit. It was Castro’s first hit of the season in his seventh at-bat since coming off the disabled list May 3.Royals starter Luke Hochevar held the White Sox to two hits and one run through the first six innings, retiring 11 in a row before Mark Kotsay’s single with one out in the seventh. That started a parade of six straight White Sox reaching base — five singles and a walk. Juan Pierre’s single scored Mark Teahen with the tying run. Gordon Beckham’s single loaded the bases and chased Hochevar.Andruw Jones’ sacrifice fly off Brad Thompson scored Castro with the go-ahead run. The Royals have yielded 32 runs in the seventh inning this season.Hochevar (3-2), who threw 26 pitches in the seventh while retiring only one, gave up five runs on seven hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings.The Royals loaded the bases in the first when Mike Aviles singled, Butler walked and Jose Guillen was hit by a pitch. Callaspo, who has hit safely in 11 of his past 12 games, cleared the bases with a double to the left-field corner. Callaspo has 15 of his 25 RBI with two outs.Butler drove a 2-2 pitch from Peavy to left in the third.

NOTES—Royals reliever Robinson Tejeda strained his left calf Friday and is day to day. Jones was back in the White Sox lineup after missing the previous two games with a stiff neck. Castro made his third start for the White Sox since coming off the DL. Chicago OF Carlos Quentin missed his second straight game with a stomach ailment. Royals OF David DeJesus played his 187th consecutive game without an error.

Octavio Dotel escaped a jam in the ninth inning and Andrew McCutchen collected two more hits, leading the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-3 win over the Cubs on Saturday.Jeff Clement hit a solo drive off closer Carlos Marmol in the ninth but the Cubs rallied against Dotel in the bottom half. Starlin Castro walked with one out and scored on Kosuke Fukudome’s triple.With Fukudome on third and the infield in, Dotel struck out Ryan Theriot and Marlon Byrd for his seventh save in nine opportunities.Paul Maholm, who pitched six effective innings for the win, had to turn away when the game got dicey in the ninth.Ryan Church hit a two-run double and McCutchen added an RBI single for Pittsburgh, which has won the first two games of the series after being swept by Cincinnati at home.McCutchen went 2 for 3 with a walk after going 5 for 5 with a homer in Friday’s 10-6 victory. He is 11 for 14 against the Cubs this season.Clement was in a 5-for-33 slump before connecting for his fourth homer.The Cubs have lost seven straight against the Pirates dating to last season, and nine of their last 11 overall. Ryan Dempster (2-4) pitched seven solid innings but lost his fourth consecutive start, allowing three runs and four hits with five walks.Piniella had two good chances to at least tie the game. Theriot entered the day batting .320 and Byrd was at .345.Dempster struggled to find the strike zone in the first inning, issuing consecutive walks to Aki Iwamura and Andy LaRoche to open the game. McCutchen blooped a single to right to score Iwamura with his sixth consecutive hit. One out later, Church doubled down the right-field line to make it 3-0.In their previous series against the Reds, the Pirates scored only one run while losing three straight.Maholm (3-3) allowed two runs and eight hits. He struck out four and walked none.Aramis Ramirez, who entered hitting .168, hit a two-out, two-run double in the third for the Cubs. Ramirez was waved home by third base coach Mike Quade when Geovany Soto followed with a single to left, but he was easily thrown out by Church.

It was an unpleasant homecoming for the Rush Saturday night, as they dropped their second game in a row, falling to the visiting Iowa Barnstormers 44-30 in front of 10,363 fans at Allstate Arena.Much like last week’s loss in Milwaukee, turnovers were the story as the Rush(4-2) turned the ball over four times, including a career-high three interceptions from QB Russ Michna.Iowa (3-3) scored on its opening play from scrimmage – a 48-yard TD pass from Ryan Vena to Errick McCown – and never looked back, leading every step of the way.

“We were just outplayed tonight,” said Rush head coach Mike Hohensee. “We made a lot of mistakes on offense and you just can’t win that way. We are going to go back and figure out the problem – and whether it is the players or the coaches, we will get it corrected.”

A Chris Gould field goal on the final play of the second quarter cut the Rush deficit to 24-16 at the half, giving the team some momentum at the break. However, for the second week in a row, the Rush struggled mightily in the third quarter.On its first possession to begin the second half, Michna threw his second interception of the game to Jason Simpson, putting an end to what could have been the game tying drive.The Barnstormers took advantage as Vena hooked up with wide receiver Todd Blythe for a 12-yard touchdown that put the Barnstormers back up two scores, 31-16.After a Rush turnover on downs gave the ball back to Iowa, Vena connected with fullback Rodney Filer making the score 38-16 with 4:42 remaining in the third quarter.The Rush defense was able to hold the Barnstormers to just six points in the remaining 19 minutes of play, but the offense could not get any closer than eight points. With the loss the Rush drops into second place in the Midwest Division behind leader Milwaukee (5-1). The Rush goes on the road the next two weeks to play at Dallas on May 22, and at Cleveland on May 29

UNCASVILLE—Tina Charles no longer has the photo of Sylvia Fowles that she kept in her college locker, a reminder of being dominated by the former LSU center in the 2007 NCAA tournament.The two met for the first time as professionals on Saturday, and this time it was Charles who took charge, scoring 17 points and pulling down 10 rebounds in her WNBA debut to lead the Connecticut Sun to a 74-61 victory over Fowles and the Sky. Charles scored her first WNBA basket on a hook shot over Fowles with 6:18 left in the first quarter.Fowles, who scored six of the Sky’s first eight points, finished with 16 points and nine rebounds and said she enjoys playing against Charles.Anete Jekabsone-Zogota led the Sun with 18 points, hitting four of her six 3-point shots.Shameka Christon and Jia Perkins each had 11 points for the Sky.Connecticut led by as many as 19 in the first half, before Fowles led the Sky on an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to 38-30.But Connecticut pulled away for good on a 16-2 third-quarter run. That was sparked by another rookie, former Nebraska star Kelsey Griffin, who took two charges from Fowles.Griffin finished with eight points and 10 rebounds. A 3-pointer by Tan White made the lead 58-39 late in the third quarter. The Sun started the fourth quarter with a 12-0 run and it was 72-43 before they eased up. Kara Lawson had 10 points, three on a half-court shot at the first-quarter buzzer that gave the Sun a 22-14 lead.The Sun finished last season at 16-18, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2002. In response, the team revamped the lineup in the offseason. They secured the pick for Charles and Montgomery in a January deal that sent All-Star Lindsay Whalen to the Minnesota Lynx.Another trade on draft day allowed to Sun to pick up Griffin with the draft’s third pick. Lawson came over as a free agent and the Sun picked up her former teammate DeMya Walker in the dispersal draft when the Sacramento Monarchs folded.Walker was not a factor in the opener, getting three early fouls and finishing with just four points.Two of the Sun’s top players from last year will miss the first few games this season. Asjha Jones, who averaged almost 17 points a game, is sidelined after undergoing surgery in February on her left Achilles’ tendon. Post player Sandrine Gruda is in Europe with the French national team until June.The Sky seemed to have trouble finding a scorer to replace Candice Dupree, who was sent to Phoenix in the offseason in a three-team deal that gave them Christon and Cathrine Kraayeveld from New York.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Mitch Maier lined a two-run single in Kansas City’s five-run seventh inning against Mark Buehrle, and the Royals made Ned Yost’s managerial debut a rousing success with a 6-1 win over the White Sox Friday night.The Royals looked like a new team, at least for one night, after Yost replaced Trey Hillman, getting good starting pitching, clutch hitting and a solid effort by the bullpen.Yuniesky Betancourt homered and saved a run with a highlight-reel snag at shortstop, Gil Meche pitched six solid innings and Kansas City roughed up Buehrle (2-5) in the seventh to give Dusty Hughes (1-1) his first win in the majors.The Royals fired Hillman Thursday night after two mediocre seasons and a 12-23 start this year. He was replaced by Yost, who got his new gig started by shuffling the coaching staff and making minor tweaks to the lineup.Jose Guillen broke out of an 0-for-22 slump with two hits and an RBI. The bullpen held for once, with Hughes allowing a hit in one inning and Blake Wood pitching the final two scoreless innings.Meche was good, too, finding the control that had been missing – 25 walks in 31 2/3 innings – in his winless start to the season.The White Sox scored a run off the right-hander in the fifth inning, playing small ball to set up A.J. Pierzynski’s flaring RBI single to left for the game’s first run.The Royals helped Meche out with some nifty defense the next inning: Maier on a running catch against the wall on Paul Konerko’s long drive to center and Betancourt on a range-and-whirl snag of Mark Teahen’s grounder up the middle with a runner on third and two outs.Meche was replaced by Hughes to start the seventh after allowing one run on five hits.Buehrle was just as good, for a while.Working quickly and throwing strikes, the left-hander didn’t allow a baserunner until Guillen flared a single to right with one out in the fifth.Then Buehrle’s night came apart.Betancourt started it in the sixth inning, hitting the first pitch he saw out to left for a solo homer that tied it at 1-all.Guillen hurt Buehrle again in the seventh by fisting a run-scoring single into center, then Maier got Kansas City’s fifth straight hit, a two-run single that chased Buehrle.Jason Kendall added a run-scoring single off Tony Pena and another run came in on Teahen’s fielding error to cap an inning that included 11 Kansas City hitters and four White Sox pitchers.Buehrle allowed six runs — five earned — on eight hits in six innings.

NOTES—White Sox RF Carlos Quentin was scratched from the lineup due to a stomach virus. Mark Kotsay played in his spot after manager Ozzie Guillen held Andruw Jones out with a stiff neck. … Royals RHP Josh Rupe accepted his outright assignment to Triple-A Omaha and will report to the team on Saturday. … Teahen was 0 for 4 in his first trip back to Kauffman Stadium since being traded in the offseason.

Just for the record, Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones really weren’t trying to one-up each other.It just seemed that way.McCutchen and Jones both homered and set career highs with five hits each, leading the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 10-6 victory over the looking worse by the day Cubs on Friday. The Pirates broke loose at the plate after four straight losses and back-to-back shutouts at Cincinnati. They scored three runs in the first inning, then rallied from a 6-4 deficit to hand the Northsiders their eighth loss in 10 games. That skid includes a three-game sweep at Pittsburgh last week.Jones, who’s from suburban Tinley Park, Ill., also doubled and drove in a career-high five runs. He broke an eighth-inning tie with a three-run homer off Carlos Zambrano, connecting right after his long drive was barely foul.McCutchen hit a solo homer in the ninth, scored five times and stole two bases. Considering the last time two Pirates collected five hits in a game was when Willie Stargell and Bob Robertson did it at Atlanta on Aug. 1, 1970, they’ll have a hard time.Zambrano (1-3) came on in the eighth and immediately ran into trouble.He hit Andy LaRoche leading off before McCutchen singled. Jones followed with a drive into the tight, right-field corner that was called foul, and Pirates manager John Russell came out to ask about the ruling.Jones then drove a 3-2 sinker over the right-center field wall for his fifth homer, making it 9-6. And when a double by Ryan Doumit and single by Lastings Milledge followed, fans really let Zambrano hear it, showering Big Z with boos.Sent to the bullpen late last month, he would be “more than happy” to rejoin the rotation, yet he insisted he’ll do whatever the Cubs ask.Evan Meek (2-1) got the win, striking out four in two scoreless innings of relief before Octavio Dotel pitched the ninth.Alfonso Soriano had two hits, scoring two and driving in two runs. Marlon Byrd hit a solo homer that made it 6-4 in the fourth, but the Cubs got nothing the rest of the way against four relievers after a shaky start by Brian Burres. Tom Gorzelanny lasted five innings, giving up a season-high five runs and allowing nine hits in his second straight start.Burres, who pitched three-hit ball over seven scoreless innings in his previous start against the Cubs, wasn’t much better, allowing six runs and seven hits in four innings. He had thrown 13 1/3 scoreless innings.The Pirates came in tied for 28th with Seattle in runs and had gone 19 scoreless innings before getting an RBI single from McCutchen, bases-loaded walk by Milledge and sacrifice fly by Steve Pearce. That lead unraveled in a hurry, but with McCutchen and Jones going a combined 10 for 11 from the third and fourth spots, they pulled this one out.

NOTES—Immigrant rights activists protested outside Wrigley Field, saying the Cubs should move their spring training facility out of Arizona. Members of the group are upset with a stringent new immigration law in Arizona that they believe encourages racial profiling. They also don’t like the Arizona Legislature’s failure to fund a new spring home for the team in Mesa…..Pearce left the game in the fifth inning with soreness behind his right knee and was to undergo tests……Pittsburgh’s Aki Iwamura is now hitless in his last 24 at-bats after going 0 for 6.

Don’t blame the new guys — Carlos Silva and Marlon Byrd — for the Cubs awful start.Silva is undefeated after beating the Florida Marlins 4-3 on Wednesday and helping the Cubs stop a four-game losing streak. Byrd, who drove in the go-ahead run with a fifth-inning double, leads the team in batting and RBIs.Had their teammates been as proficient, a ballclub with a high payroll and great expectations wouldn’t be 15-20.While Byrd was signed as a free agent to play center field and hit in the middle of the lineup, the Cubs didn’t know what to expect from Silva (4-0) — an expensive underachiever Seattle insisted they take in the Dec. 18 deal for troubled outfielder Milton Bradley.The 31-year-old right-hander was an effective pitcher for Minnesota from 2004-07 but went 5-18 in two years with the Mariners. Silva threw 23 of 27 pitches for strikes in the first three innings as the Cubs went ahead on Mike Fontenot’s two-run double. The Marlins tied it on Ronny Paulino’s two-run single in the fourth but Silva, who allowed seven hits in 6 1/3 innings, otherwise pitched out of trouble.Offense, not pitching, has been the Cubs’ primary problem. In losing seven of their previous eight games, they scored 14 runs in the victory but totaled 14 in the seven defeats.This time, they got just enough to beat Chris Volstad (3-3). He allowed four runs in six innings, the first time in 11 games a Florida starter gave up more than three runs.Florida still is looking for its first three-game winning streak.Kosuke Fukudome drew a one-out walk in the fifth, Starlin Castro singled and Byrd doubled for his 24th RBI. Castro then scored on a wild pitch when Paulino, the catcher, was unable to glove the ball just before it hit the dirt.Florida had two men on in the seventh but didn’t score, as Sean Marshall induced pinch-hitter Wes Helms to ground into a double play. The Marlins put two on against Carlos Zambrano in the eighth before Carlos Marmol struck out pinch-hitter John Baker.They finally scored in the ninth on Brian Barden’s two-out pinch single. After Gaby Sanchez followed with a single, Marmol fanned All-Star Hanley Ramirez for his fifth save.

NOTES—The Cubs host Pittsburgh Friday. Yes,the same Pirates who swept them at PNC Park last weekend…..Fontenot made an error in his first start at 2B since May 7, when Ryan Theriot was switched from SS to accommodate the hyped arrival of Castro from Double-A. … Though the 20-year-old Castro doesn’t have any RBIs since he drove in six in his memorable debut, he has hit safely in each of his six games for a .364 average. He had two singles Wednesday while batting second in place of Theriot, who sat out with hamstring tightness. Manager Lou Piniella said Castro would return to the No. 8 spot Friday if Theriot can play. … It was 45 degrees and thick fog hovered over the ballpark. “I can’t wait to get off the plane and start sweating,” Florida’s Jorge Cantu said. “I’m not a fan of the cold.”(Whaa,whaa,whaa).

MINNEAPOLIS—The Minnesota Twins have more power hitters and a higher-profile lineup since an exasperated Ozzie Guillen first labeled them “The Piranhas” four years ago for their pesky style.Well, they’re still true to their roots.The Twins picked up Carl Pavano this time, pecking away at John Danks before the go-ahead RBI single by Denard Span in the fourth inning of a 3-2 victory over the White Sox on Wednesday.Span had two singles and a walk to give the Twins a lift at the top of the lineup and help them split the chilly two-game series with the White Sox, giving them a second 6-3 homestand at Target Field. The Twins are 8-1-2 in series this year, and the White Sox — who are eight games behind the AL Central leaders — are 2-7-2. Guillen, expressed his faith in this sputtering team this week, but the Sox are batting a league-low .230 after this game. They didn’t score in 16 of 18 innings here. Alex Rios took a two-run homer from Michael Cuddyer with a jumping catch over the CF wall in the fifth inning with the Twins leading 3-2, causing Cuddyer to smack his hands on his helmet in disbelief, but the momentum didn’t last.The Twins were shut out in each of Pavano’s last two turns in the rotation, but he hasn’t been fazed.Pavano (4-3) put up his fourth straight start allowing two earned runs or less, totaling 30 innings during that span. After allowing a double steal by Juan Pierre and Rios in the first inning, with one run scoring on catcher Joe Mauer’s throwing error and another on Paul Konerko’s single, Pavano refined his slide-step motion to keep the runners from cheating and stopped overthrowing his sinker. Pavano finished seven innings, giving up six hits, and left the game to Brian Duensing, Matt Guerrier and Jon Rauch, who pitched a perfect ninth for his ninth save.Konerko gave Rauch a scare with a long fly down the left-field line in the ninth inning, but it hooked away from the foul pole.Danks (3-2) has been by far the Sox best starter, anchoring a rotation that hasn’t been as good as advertised. The left-hander finished seven innings, giving up seven hits, some of them the kind of well-placed rollers the Twins thrived on at the Metrodome.Mauer, catching consecutive games for the first time since returning from his foot injury, drove in a run with a weak groundout to second and twice grounded into double plays.Justin Morneau drove in the tying run in the third with a single, and Delmon Young hit two doubles — scoring on Span’s single to give the Twins the lead in the fourth.Orlando Hudson, given the option to bunt on his own, set up the rally in the third with a sacrifice that moved runners to second and third with one out.

NOTES—The Sox have Thursday off before startong a three game series in Kansas City Friday evening….Carlos Quentin was originally out of the lineup until RF Andruw Jones reported a stiff neck. Guillen said Jones will likely be out for Friday’s game, too. Quentin was 0 for 4 with a strikeout, dropping his average to .180.

VANCOUVER—After polishing off the Canucks with three wins in Vancouver, the Blackhawks don’t mind opening the Western Conference finals at top-seeded San Jose.Troy Brouwer and Kris Versteeg scored 36 seconds apart early in the second period, and the Blackhawks eliminated Vancouver in Game 6 of the second round for the second straight year with a 5-1 win on Tuesday.Dave Bolland scored on a short-handed breakaway with 45 seconds left in the second period, and Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien added breakaway goals 35 seconds apart in the third to send the Hawks back to the Western Conference finals.Antti Niemi made 29 saves for the second-seeded Blackhawks, who will face the San Jose Sharks with a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals on the line. After losing Game 5 at home against the Canucks, the Blackhawks feel at home on the road. Shane O’Brien scored 3:44 into the third period, and Roberto Luongo finished with 30 saves for the Canucks, who were knocked out in the second round for the third time in four years. Vancouver hasn’t advanced past the second round since 1994 when the Canucks reached the Stanley Cup Finals.Exactly one year after Luongo melted down when the Hawks knocked Vancouver out with a 7-5 win in Game 6, the goalie had a brilliant first period. He gloved Patrick Sharp’s breakaway with 6:13 left, and kicked out the left pad to stop Byfuglien’s tap-in on the goal line 8 seconds later.Sami Salo played 48 hours after taking a slap shot in the groin that forced him out of Game 5 and required a hospital visit. But his partner on the top pairing, Alexander Edler, left the game with an ankle injury after being hit hard by the 6-foot-4, 257-pound Byfuglien with 3:24 left in the period.He didn’t come back for the second, and the mixed-up pairings quickly allowed two goals. O’Brien made a bad pinch in the Hawks end, creating a 3-on-2 that Brouwer finished with a redirection.It was the first point of the playoffs for Brouwer, who was a healthy scratch since Game 1 despite 22 goals in the regular season. The Vancouver native was minus-5 in his first eight postseason games after his father was rushed to the hospital with a blot clot on his brain in early April.Kevin Bieksa gave up the puck coming out of his end on the next shift, and Versteeg picked it up on a 2-on-1 break. Vancouver had a great chance to get back in it on a late power play, but Pavol Demitra lost the puck while playing in Edler’s spot on the point, and Bolland made it 3-0.Vancouver had six shots in the second period — three on the power play in the final minute — but managed 10 in the first seven minutes of the third, forcing the Blackhawks to take a timeout. It worked. With the Canucks pressing, Kane and Byfuglien scored on consecutive shifts.

NOTES—Jonathan Toews has six goals and 19 points on his scoring streak……Tomas Kopecky came out of the lineup for Brouwer