CHICAGO | Jermaine Dye homered and drove in four runs and Joe Crede tied a career-high with four hits to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 12-9 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Tuesday night.

Crede also drove in two runs to help the White Sox move one-half game ahead of the Minnesota Twins in the AL wild-card race.

Delmon Young went 2-for-3 in his major league debut for Tampa Bay, two months after serving a 50-game suspension in the minors for throwing his bat at an umpire. He got hit on his right shoulder during his first at-bat and hit a two-run homer during his third plate appearance.

Jorge Cantu hit a two-run homer off White Sox reliever Neal Cotts in the eighth for the Devil Rays, who have lost five straight games.

Freddy Garcia (13-8) allowed five runs and seven hits in seven innings, winning back-to-back starts for the first time since June when he won three straight and moved the defending world champs within five games of AL Central leader Detroit. He struck out a season high-tying six and walked two.

Bobby Jenks pitched a perfect ninth for his 37th save in 39 chances.

Tampa Bay starter Casey Fossum (6-6) allowed back-to-back walks to start the first inning. Dye followed with an opposite-field homer to give the White Sox a 3-0 lead. Young looked like he had a shot at catching Dye’s homer, but appeared to lose track of where he was and didn’t jump for the ball, which hit off the top of the fence and bounced over for Dye’s 39th of the season.

The second inning was just as bad for Fossum. After getting the first out, Fossum walked three consecutive batters. With bases loaded, Dye drove in a run on a fielder’s choice and Paul Konerko chased Fossum with an RBI-single. Crede and A.J. Pierzynski greeted Tampa Bay reliever Chad Orvella with consecutive RBI singles to put the White Sox up 7-0.

Fossum failed to make it out of the second inning for the third time in seven starts. He allowed seven runs and three hits with five walks in 1 2-3 innings.

Carl Crawford and Dioner Navarro hit RBI-doubles off Garcia in the third inning, and Greg Norton had a run-scoring grounder in the fifth to pull Tampa Bay to 7-3.

Kevin Witt singled in the sixth inning and Young followed with his first major league hit and homer off Garcia to cut the White Sox lead to 7-5.

The Associated Press