BOSTON, Sept 6 - The Chicago White Sox pounded Boston 8-1 on Wednesday at Fenway Park to turn up the heat in the American League wild card race.

Chicago's win, combined with Minnesota's loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, saw the World Series champions trim the Twins' lead in the AL wild card standings to a half game.

"Everyone knows it's crunch time," Jermaine Dye told MLB.com.

"Re-focus and forget about what happened in the past. Go out there this last month and do what we need to do to give ourselves a chance."

The Red Sox, meanwhile, saw their post-season hopes continue to fade. Boston remain six games back in the wild card race and 8 ? behind the New York Yankees in the AL East.

Chicago came alive in the second inning with a four-run burst triggered by Jim Thome's 39th homer of the season.

Alex Cintron followed with a two-run ground-rule double and Scott Podsednik scored on Ryan Sweeney's ground-out to cap the inning.

The White Sox added another run in the third before Boston replied with a solo shot from Coco Crisp, and then pushed three more across in the fourth including Dye's 40th homer of the season.

NO PANIC

Dye joins Frank Thomas, Paul Konerko and Albert Belle as the only White Sox players to hit 40 home runs or more in a single season.

"It means a lot, but it's something that I don't go into a year thinking about," said Dye. "I never would have thought of myself hitting 40 home runs, but things have been clicking.

"I didn't panic if I had a few bad games, and kept going out and playing the game hard and having fun."

Jose Contreras (12-7) pitched eight strong innings for the win, striking out nine with a walk.

Kyle Snyder (4-4) was saddled with the loss as the Red Sox suffered their ninth defeat in 13 games.

In St Petersburg, Greg Norton and Ty Wigginton slammed back-to-back seventh inning homers, powering Tampa Bay past the Twins 4-2.

1

2