Alexei Ramirez ignored Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen’s bunt sign and it helped the White Sox win the game.

Ramirez swung away for a key single, setting up Orlando Cabrera’s fourth hit that drove in the go-ahead run in the 12th inning and the White Sox beat Cleveland 6-3 on Monday night, handing the Indians their ninth loss in 10 games.

“He went from two seconds from being in (Triple-A) Charlotte to being a hero,” Guillen said of Ramirez. “He did that on his own. I was surprised but (bench coach) Joey Cora told me he’s been working on that in batting practice.”

Boone Logan (2-1) pitched a perfect 1 1-3 innings for the win and Bobby Jenks got the final three outs for his 13th save in 15 chances.

Jenks allowed two singles, then got Jhonny Peralta to hit into a double play and struck out Franklin Gutierrez to become the second-fastest reliever to notch 100 career saves, doing so in 187 games. Kazuhiro Sasaki did it in 160 for Seattle in 2000-02.

“It’s an honor to get there,” said Jenks, who then joked: “I think I only have 500 more to catch (Trevor) Hoffman

San Diego’s Hoffman is the all-time leader with 533 saves.

The White Sox won for the 10th time in 12 games and moved 5 1-2 games ahead of the third-place Indians in the AL Central.

Nick Swisher opened the 12th with a single off right-hander Scott Elarton (0-1). Pinch-runner DeWayne Wise went to third on Ramirez’s single through the right side and scored on another single to right by Cabrera, who was then caught in a rundown trying for second.

After A.J. Pierzynski was intentionally walked, Ramirez scored on a groundout by Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye got another intentional walk. Brian Anderson then slapped an RBI double just inside the first-base line to make it 6-3.

Elarton, called up from Triple-A Buffalo on Saturday, was making his first relief appearance in the majors since Sept. 6, 2003, with Colorado. He had started 154 times in 155 outings since 1999.

“It’s not the way I had it written up,” Elarton said. “I just didn’t make pitches—though I was thinking dead bunt with that second hitter and threw it up and away, never thinking for a moment he’d be slashing there.”

David Dellucci and Jhonny Peralta hit solo homers in the first and fifth innings for Cleveland, but the Indians’ offense continued to struggle. Cleveland came in last in the AL with a .232 average, and stranded 13 baserunners while going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. The Indians are 2-for-25 with RISP in their last two games—both extra-inning losses.

“Things are not going our way right now,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “That’s why we play six months and we’ve got four-plus to go.

“We’ll come out of this stronger. We have to be competitive in this division.”

The White Sox, next-to-last in hitting with a .243 mark entering the game, weren’t much better until their winning rally.

They opened the game with three straight hits off Paul Byrd, but scored only once, on a groundout by Jim Thome.

Dellucci’s fifth homer in the bottom half tied it and the Indians copied Chicago’s early effort in the third when their first three batters all reached safely, but only one run scored on a single by Victor Martinez to make it 2-1.

Peralta hit his 10th homer with one out in the fifth and Thome hit his 10th — and fifth of the year against his former team—in the sixth to get Chicago within 3-2. It was Thome’s 517th career homer, three behind Oakland’s Frank Thomas for 18th all-time.

Byrd gave up 10 hits and three runs over 6 2-3 innings.

“I pitched OK, not great,” Byrd said. “There’s no use denying it by just talking positive. We’re losing. We don’t like it, especially with a chance to make up some ground against the White Sox.”

Chicago had only two hits in its previous 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position until Pierzynski singled to center off reliever Rafael Perez with two outs in the seventh to tie it at 3.

White Sox starter Javier Vazquez gave up three runs and nine hits over six innings.

Geovany Soto didn’t get the automatic home run he deserved. Cubs manager Lou Piniella thinks he probably likes it that way.

Soto was credited with an inside-the-park three-run homer in the fourth inning despite replays showing that it should have been an automatic home run in Chicago’s 7-2 win over Houston on Monday night.

The ball bounced just to the right of the yellow line on the wall in left-center field.

“It was a home run, but I think he’d probably rather have the inside-the-park home run anyway,” Piniella said.

Astros center fielder Michael Bourn scooped it up and threw it home, but Soto scored easily before the throw got there.

“Never in my whole life had I had an inside-the-park home run,” Soto said. “I didn’t think it was out. It’s so big that left-center area I didn’t think I hit it over it. I thought double, maybe triple if they misplayed it.”

Ted Lilly has located his strikeout pitch, and Alfonso Soriano has found his batting eye and power.

It was a strong combination Wednesday night, one that led the Chicago Cubs over the San Diego Padres 8-5.

Lilly fanned 11 in six innings to get his third straight win and Soriano had his second leadoff homer in as many nights.

“I don’t think I just stand out there and try to throw fastballs by guys,” said Lilly, who has consecutive double-digit strikeout games for the first time in his career.

“I have to mix my pitches and change speeds and locate the ball and things like that,” he said. “And at times, when I got my curveball going, I’m going to get some strikeouts on it. But I’m not going to say I’m a power pitcher.”

Backed by three RBIs apiece from Soriano and Geovany Soto, who also homered, Lilly (4-4) allowed four runs and six hits in six innings. After striking out 10 against Arizona in his previous start, he fanned eight in the first four innings. He left after throwing 102 pitches on a 46-degree night.

Cubs pitchers combined to strike out 15 against the Padres, whose 308 strikeouts are second in the major leagues behind Florida’s 326.

Soriano, who has three homers in as many games, is 10-for-19 over the last five games after a slow start that included a trip to the disabled list. He also had a key two-run single in the second inning after a wild pitch by Jake Peavy on a third strike to Lilly allowed the pitcher to reach. The single gave the Cubs a 3-0 lead.

“I feel great. I’m swinging the bat really well,” said Soriano, who was booed early in the 10-game homestand. “That’s part of the game. It motivates me to try to make myself a better player.”

Peavy (4-3) needed 87 pitches to make it through four innings. He gave up four runs and seven hits, struck out eight and walked two.

The wild pitch was costly.

“It would have been a different game. I still had the chance to make some pitches to Soriano there,” Peavy said. “I’d much rather get Ted Lilly out there than have to face Soriano, but I didn’t. I have to make better pitches. I’m obviously just frustrated. I have to do better than that. Having to get pulled after four is embarrassing.”

Carlos Quentin did what he does every day—checked the lineup card to see if he was playing. This time, he was batting third for the first time this season.

Quentin made White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen look smart when he broke an eighth-inning tie with his first career grand slam in Chicago’s 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night.

He also matched his career high with five RBIs and helped spoil John Lackey’s long-awaited return to the Angels’ rotation.

A.J. Pierzynski hit second—one of five players who batted in an unfamiliar slot for the first time this season. The others were Jim Thome (fifth), Paul Konerko (sixth) and Nick Swisher (eighth). Thome came in hitting .209, Konerko .213 and Swisher .206.

“You hit where you hit and you move on. I mean, you can’t really try to over think it,” Pierzynski said. “The two hole is probably the highest I’ve ever hit. It’s something different. Ozzie shook it up and it worked, so I’m sure we’ll probably have the same one tomorrow.”

Jered Weaver looked nothing like a pitcher who had a 7.02 ERA over his previous six starts.

Weaver allowed one hit over seven innings, combining with two relievers on a three-hitter, and Mike Napoli hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the eighth to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 2-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.

“I just went out there and tried to pitch like the old Jered, and it came out all right,” Weaver said. “It was just adjustments with mechanics in the bullpen between starts. Me and (pitching coach Mike) Butcher were able to clean some stuff up.

“The arm strength’s coming along,” he added. “The more innings I get, the better my arm strength is going to get. That’s the way it’s always been. I always seem to get stronger as the season went along. I guess the six days rest kind of helped, too.”

Manager Mike Scioscia couldn’t have been more pleased with the right-hander’s dramatic turnaround.

“That’s the best stuff Jered’s had in two years,” Scioscia said. “He maintained it and he finished strong. His pitch count got a little high, but the last couple of innings he regrouped and finished hitters off better. You can’t throw the ball much better than Weave did tonight. It’s very encouraging.”

A.J. Pierzynski’s leadoff single in the fifth was the only hit off Weaver, who pitched seven innings. He struck out six and walked one, coming out of the game after 109 pitches. He came in 1-4 since pitching seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball in a 2-1 win over Texas on April 5.

“He just missed our bats,” Jermaine Dye said. “I mean, he threw a lot of breaking pitches, a lot of changeups in hitter’s counts, and was able to get ground balls and flyballs.”

Chicago starter John Danks had a hard-luck no-decision, although he had to work hard for it. Pitching against the Angels for the first time in his career, he scattered seven hits and two walks over 6 1-3 innings, struck out five and never retired the side in order.

Danks departed with one out and the bases loaded in the seventh after walking Gary Matthews Jr. with his 99th and final pitch. Octavio Dotel struck out Erick Aybar and Vladimir Guerrero to escape the jam.

But Dotel (1-2) gave up a leadoff single in the eighth to Torii Hunter, who took third when Garret Anderson got the green light on a 3-0 pitch from Matt Thornton and singled to right field. Napoli’s delivered Hunter with a flyout to center, with Anderson alertly tagging up, and Robb Quinlan drove in the second run with a two-out single against Scott Linebrink.

Scot Shields (2-0) pitched one inning for the win and Francisco Rodriguez got three outs for his major league-leading 16th save.

The Angels stranded a runner in scoring position in four of the first five innings. Hunter grounded out with a man on third base to end the first, Guerrero hit into a double play to end the third, Casey Kotchman flied out to end the fourth, and Aybar grounded out to end the fifth.

“We left way too many runners in scoring position,” Scioscia said. “We stranded a lot of guys and were 1-for-12 with guys in scoring position. So it was a night we needed to pitch well, and we did. We scratched out a couple of runs late and held on.”

Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen flip-flopped Paul Konerko and Dye in his lineup, dropping the slumping Konerko to fifth and putting Dye in the cleanup spot for the fourth time this season following his four-hit performance on Monday night. But they didn’t get a runner past first base until Carlos Quentin doubled off the center fence with one out in the ninth.

“We haven’t been scoring too many runs lately, but our pitchers have been going out there and giving us a chance,” Dye said. “We just have to try and bear down a little bit more and get some runs across for them early.”

Carlos Zambrano switched to longer sleeves after three innings, not so much to combat the cold—as would be expected—but to cover a scab on his pitching arm.

Big Z was plenty ready for the elements on a 41-degree night in mid-May and showed his sense of humor Monday night after pitching and batting the Chicago Cubs to a 12-3 win over the San Diego Padres.

“It’s OK for me. I’m from Alaska,” Zambrano said, drawing laughs at his postgame news conference.

“No, it’s tough man, especially for me. I’m from South America, Venezuela. It is not this cold. Not even close,” he said.

“As a starting pitcher … don’t worry about the cold factor, just try to hit your spots and try to do the best you can to keep the inning quick.”

But the Cubs made sure the Padres couldn’t get off the field soon enough, scoring six runs in the fifth—started by Zambrano’s double—and adding five more in the sixth, when he added a single. They had 13 hits and made the most of nine walks issued by the Padres.

Pitching with an extra day’s rest after his start Sunday was scratched because of rainy conditions, Zambrano (6-1) allowed six hits and three runs in seven innings. And he was part of a batting order that was on base all night.

“I think we have a very good lineup, very balanced,” said Alfonso Soriano, who homered in the fifth and is 7-for-14 during the Cubs’ four-game winning streak. “Be more aggressive and, at the same time, selective at home plate. That’s what I try to do because I know when I swing at a strike, I know that I hit the ball very hard.”

The Cubs’ first eight batters reached in the fifth on six hits and two walks. Randy Wolf (2-3) didn’t retire a batter in the inning and in four-plus innings, he gave up eight hits, seven runs and five walks.

“In the fifth inning, there is really no way to candy coat it,” Wolf said. “I was bad. I didn’t make the pitches I needed to. They capitalized on it. You get behind and you don’t locate. Those are two recipes for something bad to happen.”

Jody Gerut’s first homer in nearly three years gave the Padres a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth, but the Cubs quickly responded.

Zambrano drove a ball off the wall in right-center for a leadoff double and Soriano followed with a drive to left-center that just cleared the fence for his fourth homer, putting Chicago up 3-2.

Ryan Theriot walked, Derrek Lee singled and Aramis Ramirez had an RBI single before Kosuke Fukudome worked a walk to load the bases. Geovany Soto’s two-run single through the middle made it 6-2 and finished Wolf. Mark DeRosa then greeted reliever Sean Henn with an RBI single.

“He couldn’t make a pitch to get himself out of it,” Padres manager Bud Black said of Wolf.

In the sixth, the Cubs batted around again. They loaded the bases for the third time in the game on Soriano’s double and walks to Theriot and Ramirez before Fukudome drew his third walk of the game to force in a run.

It got worse for the Padres, who have the worst record in the majors at 14-25.

When DeRosa hit a grounder to third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff, he tried to race to the bag for a force, but Ramirez beat him there. Kouzmanoff then threw wildly to first for an error and three runs ended up scoring on the play as the Cubs went up 11-2. Reed Johnson later added an RBI single.

Fukudome’s three walks were a big part of the Cubs’ offense.

“The guy knows how to play baseball,” Zambrano said. “He came to the U.S. ready to play. One thing I see in Fukudome is he can handle it with all the media and all the fans.”

Lee’s double into the right-field corner scored Theriot, who singled, in the first to put the Cubs ahead 1-0. Tadahito Iguchi hit an RBI single in the third to tie it.

Daryle Ward was so sure he would play in the majors that he practiced his signature as a kid. He may get a few autograph requests after his latest big hit.

Ward delivered a pinch-hit, two-run double in the eighth inning, and the Chicago Cubs rallied again to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4 Sunday after the anticipated showdown between Carlos Zambrano and Randy Johnson got wiped out.

“I love the game of baseball,” Ward said. “It’s something I knew that I was going to do when I was about 3 years old.”

Carlos Marmol (1-0) struck out two in a perfect eighth and Kerry Wood pitched the ninth to earn his seventh save in 10 chances and finish off Chicago’s three-game sweep of the NL West leaders.

Heavy rain and temperatures in the mid-40s delayed the start of the game by 58 minutes, and Zambrano and Johnson were spectators when it finally began. By the time the game ended, the Cubs had used another late rally to beat Arizona, the team that swept them in the playoffs last year.

Reed Johnson tied it at 4 with a two-run homer off Juan Cruz with one out in the seventh after Mike Fontenot walked. Cruz then walked Ryan Theriot before Tony Pena (0-1) got Derrek Lee to hit into a double play, but the Cubs struck again in the eighth.

Pena intentionally walked pinch-hitter Alfonso Soriano to load the bases with one out and set the stage for Ward, who drove the ball to right-center to make it 6-4.

“Well, I’m not going to let Soriano beat us right there,” Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. “We’ve got to have a chance for a double-play ball and we’ve got (Ward) hitting (.174) up there. That’s really not that tough of a decision.”

Ward also tied it with a pinch-hit RBI single in Chicago’s 7-2 victory over Arizona on Saturday.

Most days, Ward follows a heavy regimen of stretches and massages in case he gets called.

“Sometimes, you’re a little bit lazy and say, ‘I don’t want to do it,”’ said Ward, third among active players with 74 pinch hits. “But you have to. I feel like I’m making a good example for some of the younger guys that are playing on the bench. They do some of the same things I do, and it’s been working for all of us.”

It’s a lot of effort for about a minute of activity.

“Was it even a minute?” he asked on Sunday.

No one was sure, exactly. They just knew his timing was perfect, as was Reed Johnson’s.

Stuck in a 4-for-34 slump over the previous 11 games, he drove his first homer through a driving wind about halfway up the bleachers.

“The last week or so, we really haven’t been playing that well so I think this was a good confidence boost,” said Johnson, signed to a one-year deal in late March after Toronto released him.

Arizona’s Edgar Gonzalez was in line to get the win until Johnson went deep.

Recently booted from the rotation, Gonzalez allowed two runs and five hits before being lifted for a pinch hitter in the sixth. One of those hits was a solo homer by Lee that gave Chicago a 2-1 lead in the third.

Cubs starter Sean Gallagher carried the lead into the fifth but couldn’t make it out of the inning. Reliever Chad Fox wasn’t much help, either, walking in two runs that inning.

Gallagher allowed four runs and five hits over 4 1-3 innings in his first major league start and likely will get another one against Pittsburgh this week. The 22-year-old right-hander had made two appearances this season after posting an 8.59 ERA in eight relief outings while splitting time between the majors and minors last year.

If the Cubs caught a break by missing Randy Johnson, who’s 12-0 against them, it was tough to tell.

Lee’s homer aside, they did little against Gonzalez.

“He did a pretty good job of keeping the ball down and got a lot of groundballs,” Arizona catcher Miguel Montero said. “He got ahead in the count, which I thought was a big key for him.”

Joe Crede’s cool approach helped the Chicago White Sox end a long night with a victory and hand New York Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain his first major league defeat.

Crede lined an RBI single to center to score Carlos Quentin in the bottom of the ninth as Chicago beat New York 7-6 and avoided a three-game sweep.

“I think the biggest thing is to be able to control your emotions out there. The crowd is getting into it, especially when there is a guy on base in scoring position, and you have a chance for the base hit to win it,” Crede said after his hit set off a wild celebration at U.S. Cellular Field.

“You just go up there and try not to do too much and you know I’ve faced Chamberlain only twice so far, once being yesterday, and you kind of go through in the back of your head what kind of pitches he has and what they do,” Crede added. “You try to figure out what you need to do to try to go out there and just get a base hit.”

And Crede, who’s earned a reputation for getting clutch hits during his career, got a 1-2 pitch from the hard-throwing 22-year-old right-hander and delivered.

Chamberlain had given up just three earned runs in 32 innings over 26 regular-season appearances since being called up last year. He gave up one earned run in 19 outings in 2007.

“I’m not perfect every night,” said Chamberlain, who was the subject of much attention this week when team co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner said he should be starting instead of relieving. “I give up hits and that’s the way it’s going to be. I let my team down.”

Quentin doubled with one out off Chamberlain (1-1) and Crede lined a single to left-center to score him.

“He’ll be fine. He’ll bounce back. He’s given up a run before in his life,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Chamberlain.

Crede, who’s made a strong comeback after back surgery last season, has already hit two grand slams this season. He’s the guy the White Sox like to see when they need a big hit.

“We like our chances with Joe up. He’s done it all year,” White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. “He’s done it his whole career. He was the right guy in the right spot.”

Bobby Jenks (1-0) got pinch-hitter Jorge Posada to ground into an inning-ending double play with two runners on in the top of the ninth to get the win in a game twice delayed by rain.

Trailing 6-3, the Yankees tied it when Melky Cabrera hit a two-out, two-run homer off Gavin Floyd in the sixth, and Morgan Ensberg delivered a two-out RBI single off Scott Linebrink in the seventh.

Ensberg started a third straight game in place of injured Yankees star Alex Rodrigez, who rejoined the team Thursday but again didn’t play because of a strained right quadriceps. Rodriguez had been in Miami where his wife gave birth to their second child.

Floyd worked before and after a 51-minute rain delay in the third inning, allowing five hits and five runs in six innings.

Yankees starter Phil Hughes is still looking for his first win after five starts. New York took a 3-0 lead in the top of the third before the delay but decided not to bring back Hughes, their promising 21-year-old right-hander. Hughes allowed just one hit in his brief two-inning stint while throwing 23 pitches.

The White Sox scored five in the fourth off reliever Ross Ohlendorf. Orlando Cabrera reached on an infield single, Jim Thome walked, Paul Konerko had an RBI single, Jermaine Dye delivered a run-scoring single that skipped past Ensberg at third and Pierzynski added an RBI double over Bobby Abreu’s head in right.

Quentin then grounded to Ensberg, whose throw to the plate couldn’t get the sliding Dye as Chicago went up 4-3. Alexei Ramirez hit a ball down the right-field line that Abreu couldn’t reach and the RBI double made it 5-3.

Facing LaTroy Hawkins in the fifth, Thome hit his 513th homer and moved into sole possession of 19th place on the career list, breaking a tie with Ernie Banks and Eddie Mathews. It gave Chicago a 6-3 lead.

Floyd had struggled with his control in the third, giving up a hit to Jason Giambi—who was batting .135—and walking Cabrera and Johnny Damon to load the bases. Giambi made a great slide around Pierzynski beating a strong throw from Dye, who caught Derek Jeter’s line drive in right field.

Abreu, who had a go-ahead grand slam in Tuesday night’s series opener, then doubled off the top of the left-field fence to drive in two, giving him 1,000 career RBIs.

In the sixth, Floyd gave up a two-out double to Giambi before Cabrera hit his fourth homer to cut Chicago’s lead to 6-5.

For one brief moment, a smile crossed Aramis Ramirez’s face when he learned the Chicago Cubs took the lead in the National League Central. Then, it disappeared.

The Cubs know how drastically fortunes can change, so they weren’t about to jump for joy over moving into first place on Sunday.

Ramirez tied a career high with four hits, including a two-run homer, in a 13-6 victory over Pittsburgh that gave Chicago its second three-game sweep of the Pirates this season.

Then, he had a question: “Did St. Louis win today?”

No, the Cardinals lost to San Francisco, so the Cubs took a half-game lead in the Central. Ramirez let out a smile and then it was gone.

“We still got, what, 150 games to go?” he said.

Actually, they have 144. But if Ramirez wants to prolong this season, well, so do the rest of his teammates

Chicago got big days from Ramirez and Ryan Theriot and won for the 11th time in 14 games. Theriot had four hits, scored three runs and drove in two. With Saturday’s 13-1 drubbing, this was the first time the Cubs scored 13 or more in back-to-back games since they did it against Florida and Atlanta on July 20-21, 2003.

Chicago banged out a season-high 18 hits, the most since it had 20 against Cincinnati last August 16, while sending Pittsburgh to its fifth straight loss. The win was Chicago’s ninth straight against the Pirates, matching the Cubs’ longest win streak against them since Sept. 5, 1938 to May 13, 1939.

“It feels great to be in first place,” starter Ryan Dempster said. “Now, the tough part is trying to stay there.”

Dempster (3-0) wasn’t feeling great after Pittsburgh scored three runs in the fifth to cut it to 5-3, but Chicago responded with five in the bottom half against reliever Franquelis Osoria. The Pirates committed two errors in the inning, and Ramirez capped the outburst with his fourth homer.

The four-hit game was Ramirez’s 18th and his first since Sept. 27 at Florida.

“I felt pretty good,” said Ramirez, who raised his average from .234 to .275. “I can’t say I’m right where I want to be because I only had (one) good day.”

At 12-6, the Cubs matched their best 18-game start since 2004. One reason is their patience at the plate. The Cubs walked seven times on Sunday after drawing 10 the previous day.

“We figure we should score runs,” Lee said. “We feel like this is what we’re capable of.”

Theriot is playing a big part, with a .338 average.

He singled in a run in the first to extend his hitting streak to seven and was 4-for-5. He doubled and scored in the third, and added an RBI double and scored again in the fourth to help Chicago build a 5-0 lead.

That was enough for Dempster, who was lifted for a pinch hitter in the fifth. He allowed five hits, walked two, struck out three and hit a batter in his shortest outing of the year.

It was a rough outing for Pittsburgh’s Zach Duke (0-1), who was 4-2 with a 2.01 ERA in nine previous starts against Chicago. This time, he allowed five runs and eight hits in four innings and his ERA climbed from 2.89 to 4.37. He walked two and hit two batters. Only 36 of his 69 pitches were strikes.

“You can’t overanalyze it too much,” he said. “You can get into a big downward spiral if you let yourself do that. I’m going to take this one for what it is and bounce back next time.”

The Cubs scratched Kosuke Fukudome from their lineup because of a small cyst above his right eye—a condition that manager Lou Piniella said is not serious while calling it “only a one-day thing.”

Once the Baltimore Orioles got two runs in the ninth inning off Bobby Jenks to force extra innings, they figured might as well take their improbable comeback to the next level.

“Once we got into extra innings, we said, ‘Why not just win this thing?”’ said Adam Jones, who helped them do just that.

Jones singled in the game-winning run in the 10th inning, giving the Orioles a 6-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night.

Baltimore trailed 5-2 in the eighth before rallying to split the two-game series.

After scoring their third unearned run to close to 5-3, the Orioles had to go up against Jenks, who entered in the ninth looking to go 7-for-7 in save situations. Brian Roberts got Baltimore within a run with a two-out RBI double, and Melvin Mora grounded a 3-2 pitch up the middle to tie it.

Of Jenks’ 13 career blown saves, three have come at Camden Yards.

“When we tied the game, we knew we were going to win,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “That’s just the feeling that was in that dugout.”

Kevin Millar led off the 10th with a walk from Boone Logan (1-1) and advanced on a walk to Luke Scott. After Aubrey Huff hit a fly to left, Jones hit a liner inside the left-field line that scored Millar without a throw.

“The best thing we have had so far is our bullpen, and they didn’t get it done tonight,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.

Jenks wouldn’t talk after the game, but Logan said, “We’re not perfect. Bobby, no matter how good he is, isn’t going to have 100 percent every night. What happened, happened. Then I came in and they kept hitting, but the walks didn’t help.”

Nick Markakis homered for the Orioles, whose only lead in the series came when Millar crossed the plate. George Sherrill (1-0) pitched the 10th to earn the win.

Carlos Quentin hit two homers and Joe Crede also connected for Chicago, now 9-1 when leading after eight innings.

After the Orioles drew even with two unearned runs in the sixth, Quentin and Crede connected on successive pitches from Jeremy Guthrie to put Chicago up 4-2. Quentin’s homer ended a 3-for-25 skid, and Crede’s drive upped his RBI total to 18.

Quentin added a solo shot off Dennis Sarfate in the eighth. It was the second two-homer game of his career; the other came last May for Arizona against Colorado.

Chicago starter Gavin Floyd, who went to high school in Baltimore, pitched six innings of two-hit ball in a memorable homecoming. He struck out four, walked two and lowered his ERA to 1.40.

“It was fun pitching here. I grew up watching the Orioles, so to pitch here was special,” Floyd said.

In his last start, the right-hander held Detroit hitless through 7 1-3 innings. In this one, Floyd retired the first 12 batters before Millar bounced a single off the glove of Crede at third base.

That was Baltimore’s lone hit until Markakis homered with a man on in the sixth. Both runs were unearned, because the inning began with Luis Hernandez reaching on an error by first baseman Paul Konerko.

The Orioles’ third run was also tainted. After the 100-game errorless streak of White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski ended with an errant throw in the eighth, Scott hit an RBI double.

Pierzynski also went 0-for-5, snapping his bat over his knee after a foul out in the 10th.