Buehrle returns to form for White Sox

CHICAGO -- The way Mark Buehrle had been pitching, this looked like a mismatch. It turned out to be just that, only with a twist his team welcomed.

Buehrle took a shutout into the eighth inning and the Chicago White Sox handed Jon Lester his first loss in 2 1/2 months, hanging on to beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-3, Friday night.

“It’s the Mark we’ve seen most of the time,” Manager Ozzie Guillen said.

The Red Sox had won five of six but couldn’t get anything going against Buehrle (9-10), who yielded just four hits and tied a season-high with eight strikeouts while walking two after losing his previous two starts.

It was a sharp contrast from last week’s outing at Kansas City, where he gave eight runs and 14 hits -- tying and setting season-highs -- over 4 1/3 innings.