MLB

• Stingless: Chicago's Buehrle aims to stifle Rays

  
  

  (Sports Network) - Workhorse lefty Mark Buehrle looks to continue a career's worth of mastery against Tampa Bay tonight when the Chicago White Sox visit the Rays in the middle game of a three-game series at Tropicana Field.

  A 29-year-old Missouri native, Buehrle is 6-1 in 12 lifetime appearances -- including seven starts -- against Tampa Bay, allowing 62 hits and 26 earned runs in 56 2/3 innings.

  He's earned a win, a loss and a no-decision in three starts thus far in 2008, shaking off a rough outing in his March 31 debut at Cleveland to surrender just 16 hits and three earned runs in 14 innings since.

  Buehrle was 10-9 in 30 starts in 2007, posting a 3.63 earned run average in 201 innings.

  Former 13th-round draft pick Andy Sonnanstine makes his fourth start of 2008 for Tampa Bay.

  The 25-year-old defeated the New York Yankees in the Bronx on April 4, but has since allowed 16 hits and 11 runs in just 9 1/3 innings of a subsequent loss to Seattle and a no-decision in a rematch with the Yankees on April 14 in Florida.

  Sonnanstine reached the major leagues with the Rays in 2007, making 22 starts and going 6-10 with a 5.85 ERA in 130 2/3 innings.

  He's faced the White Sox one time, getting a no-decision in a 2007 start after allowing six hits and two runs in 6 1/3 innings, with six strikeouts and no walks.

  On Friday, Jim Thome crushed a three-run home run in the third inning to help lead the White Sox past Tampa Bay, 9-2.

  Paul Konerko added two RBI for the White Sox, who have won three of four overall. Juan Uribe was 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI and two runs scored. Nick Swisher finished with one hit, two runs scored and three walks.

  Javier Vazquez (3-1) got the win after going 6 1/3 innings and yielding two runs on six hits, while fanning four and walking one batter.

  Jeff Niemann absorbed the loss by giving up eight runs -- five earned -- on five hits in 3 1/3 innings of work.

  B.J. Upton ended 2-for-3 with a run scored for the Rays, who have dropped four of five. Jonny Gomes had an RBI, as did rookie third baseman Evan Longoria, who signed a lucrative contract on Friday prior to the game.

  The first six years of the 22-year old Longoria's contract are guaranteed, with a one-year club option for 2014 and a two-year option for 2015 and 2016.

  Longoria is guaranteed to make $17.5 million through the first six years, and could earn more than $44 million if the Rays exercise both options, which would keep him in Tampa until he's 31. The deal is the longest in franchise history.

  The White Sox dominated the season series with Tampa last year, taking six of the seven contests and sweeping a four-game set in St. Petersburg in late June.

  04/19 10:50:41 ET