Braves swept after Saito gives up late homer

CHICAGO -- Derek Lowe, pitching like an ace again, made no costly mistakes during seven crisp innings against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.

But Braves reliever Takashi Saito, pitching like someone a bit rusty after a stint on the disabled list, made one costly mistake in the eighth. A get-out-the-brooms mistake.

Paul Konerko's two-run homer off Saito lifted the White Sox to a 2-0 win at U.S. Cellular Field and a three-game sweep of the Braves, whose eight-week run as baseball's hottest team was interrupted by a team even hotter.

Gavin Floyd allowed two hits with nine strikeouts in seven innings for the sizzling White Sox, who have won 13 of 14 games and swept three consecutive series during a season-high nine-game winning streak.

"I don’t think anyone is leaving here thinking we’re a bad team," said Lowe, who allowed five hits and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in his first scoreless start since Opening Day in 2009.

"You look at how this White Sox team has been playing for the last two weeks, and it’s just off the charts. Those things happen. We ran into a team that is playing good, and we didn’t play our best."

Relievers J.J. Putz and closer Bobby Jenks blanked the Braves over the final two innings to complete the two-hit shutout and give the White Sox a stingy 2.13 ERA over their past 14 games.

The loss dropped the Braves into a first-place tie with New York in the National League East before the Mets' Thursday night game against the Detroit Tigers. The Braves were last swept April 26-29 at St. Louis.

"We just ran into a hot team on the road," third baseman Chipper Jones said of the White Sox. "Now we get to go back home for a while and try to continue doing what we’ve been doing all year."

The Braves have won 14 of their past 15 home games and have the best home record (24-7) in the majors. After losing all three on this one-city trip, they have dropped eight of their past 13 road games.

They totaled just two runs and two extra-base hits (doubles) in the last two games of the series, after hitting a pair of home runs in a 9-6 loss in the opener.

"We could have hit better, that’s for sure," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "But you’ve got to give the pitchers credit on the other side. We made all kinds of great defensive plays today. We just got shut down by a good pitcher."

Jones found it remarkable that Floyd had a 2-7 record, including no decision Thursday. The right-hander is 0-1 with an 0.93 ERA in his past four starts, allowing three runs and 15 hits with 31 strikeouts in 29 innings.

"That team right there, if they’re swinging the bats, they’re the best team that we’ve played thus far," Jones said. "The back end of their bullpen is dynamite. We didn’t even see [Sergio] Santos. When you can run Putz, [Matt] Thornton, Santos and Jenks out there in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings -- they’re the first team that I’ve seen that can really shorten the game to six innings."

The Braves aspire to shorten games in a similar fashion with their bullpen veterans Peter Moylan, Saito and closer Billy Wagner, along with lefties Eric O'Flaherty and rookie sensation Jonny Venters.

But Moylan has had a couple of rough patches, and Saito just returned from the 15-day DL because of a strained left hamstring.

The 40-year-old was activated Tuesday and threw 22 pitches in a hitless eighth inning late Wednesday in a game delayed by rain nearly two hours.