CHICAGO -- How bad were the conditions at rain-soaked U.S. Cellular Field by the fifth inning of the White Sox 6-4 victory over Toronto on Sunday?

Let the players who participated present the not-so-funny punch lines.

"This is the second worst field conditions I've ever played in," said White Sox third baseman Joe Crede, pointing to a game at Wrigley Field two years ago as the worst. "During the fifth inning, that was not a playable surface out there."

"I was getting the ball back from the umpire, and they were already wet by the time I was throwing them back to Freddy [Garcia]," added White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski. "The last inning, the field was under water, basically."

"You can't control Mother Nature, but the conditions were unsafe in the top of the fifth inning," Toronto third baseman Troy Glaus added. "Obviously, that team was probably more dangerous since they were playing defense. However, nobody should've been on the field."

Nobody was on the field after Garcia (2-1) struck out Eric Hinske with the bases loaded and four runs already in for the Blue Jays (6-6) in the top of the fifth. Nobody except for White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle, who entertained the wet masses with a couple of his traditional tarp dives during the second drain delay.

But an angry general manager Ken Williams and an apparent fine has put an end to that portion of Buehrle's career. As for the game, the umpires waited the requisite 30 minutes for the second delay before stopping the contest officially after 4 1/2 innings.

The group of umpires, led by crew chief John Hirshbeck, did everything it could to get this game through the top of the fifth, especially with the Blue Jays not making another trip to Chicago. But it was not an easy situation for anyone.

Garcia, who had not allowed a run through the first four innings, gave up a run-scoring single to Russ Adams in the fifth and walked in two more. The right-hander matched a career high with six walks, four of which came in the fifth.

Glaus struck out with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fifth, looking back at home-plate umpire CB Bucknor after almost every pitch, seemingly indicating it was impossible to grip the bat. As Crede said, though, the pools of water on the infield made the toughest chore playing defense.

Tadahito Iguchi found out the hard way, as he was unable to handle Bengie Molina's grounder that would have ended the fifth. Instead, the fourth run scored and left Garcia with work to do against Hinske. Garcia also showed a little on-mound frustration with Iguchi's miscue, a reaction that didn't sit well with manager Ozzie Guillen.

"The way the game was and with the rain and the way the field was, that reaction was a little bit out of control," said Guillen, who mentioned that he apologized to Iguchi for the reaction. "We understand the frustration, but I was a little upset with Freddy also because I don't want my pitcher to show anyone up."

"I was desperate to get out of the inning," Garcia added. "They don't know how tough it is to be out there when it's raining that hard."

When the conditions were relatively dry early on, the White Sox offense teed off on Toronto starter Josh Towers (0-3). Both Jermaine Dye (second) and Jim Thome (seventh) launched two-run home runs in the first two innings, but Scott Podsednik scoring runs in each of those innings was far more important than either of the long balls.

Podsednik tripled to lead off the first against Towers, coming home on Iguchi's single. Podsednik singled and swiped second base in the second, his first stolen base of 2006, and scored on Thome's blast to right. It was the 12th straight game that Thome has scored a run.

With just three hits in his first 38 at-bats entering Sunday afternoon's contest, a .122 average never looked so good to Podsednik. The White Sox left fielder even joked that it would be not as tense at home and his family would be able to enjoy a happy Easter.

"I'm so hard on myself and so analytical of my game, that I'm my own worst enemy," Podsednik said. "Most of the times, when I'm not playing well, that slump has lengthened a little bit because of the pressure I put on myself to go and pull myself out of it.

"They are trying to get me to quit analyzing, stay out of the film room and stay out of the cage and just let it happen. Right now, it's all upstairs. It's about going out with some confidence and letting it go."

Although it's still extremely early in the season, the White Sox second straight victory over Toronto improved the South Siders to 7-5 and forged a three-way, first-place tie in the American League Central with Cleveland and Detroit. That Central competitiveness should be present all year.

So, surviving Sunday's rain-shortened deluge counts just as significantly in the standings as a two-hit shutout or a five-home run outburst.

"It was a cheap one, but we'll take it," Buehrle said.

"We were just happy to get the game in and get the win," Crede added. "The way we left the field, it would have taken a couple of hours to get the field back ready again, if that. In the meantime, you have standing water on the infield, and that's the part that drains the best. I didn't want to go back out there and play in those conditions again."