Normally, losses to the Royals are unacceptable, but when you have injuries, defense, and finally the weather working against you, you just have to throw your hands up and say "Uncle."
With Paul Konerko and Jim Thome shelved, Alex Cintron received the start at DH for the second time all year. And much like
the last time Cintron DHed, the White Sox sported a lackluster offensive performance, and the rest of the team's execution wasn't much better. That game also featured rain prominently.
Scott Podsednik made another error in left, his seventh of the season, freezing on Reggie Sanders' liner right at him before lunging and missing on a lunging last-second make-up attempt. But Juan Uribe did him one better when, after finding himself in
Ozzie's doghouse for lackadaisical play, he flat-out dropped a routine foul ball. Joe Crede has done this a couple times because of his depth perception problems, but Juan's error -- his fourth error in his last seven games. This stretch will likely cause Juan Uribe any chance at a Gold Glove, which is unfortunate though not unfair.
Juan did make up for it, however, when he blasted a solo homer in the eighth inning to cut the Royals lead to 5-3. Two batters later, A.J. Pierzynski reached to bring up Jermaine Dye. But after the Royals made a pitching change, the wind shifted 180 degrees, and now batters were staring into gale-force gusts. Dye managed a single, but Joe Crede, who'd been so good this series, struck out as the wind picked up even more.
Finally in the eighth, after Ozzie Guillen brought in Neal Cotts to relieve Brandon McCarthy, horizontal sheets of water rained down on Kauffman Stadium, causing a rain delay. With the way it was going, I'm guessing the next call to the bullpen would cause the sky to open up and shoot flames.
Freddy Garcia battled all night long. While I wasn't monitoring the radar gun all that closely, I can't remember one pitch getting into the 90s. Heck, even 89 would've been a thrill. He was able to work around most of the lineup after Joey Gathright's sacrifice fly drove in an unearned run off Podsednik's error, but Mark Teahen gave him problems all night long. Teahen hit a two-run homer in the fifth to give the Royals the lead back, and then added a key insurance run with an RBI double in the seventh.
Ozzie Guillen probably should've pulled Freddy after that, but he tried to get one more out. He couldn't do it. He walked Shane Costa intentionally (Shane Costa?), and then Ryan Shealy singled to drive in the Royals' fifth run. Brandon McCarthy and Neal Cotts were warm in the bullpen, by the way --
not that Neal's a lock to get lefties out right now.
Not that the Sox offense would've made it up. They scored all their runs via the homer, including a titanic Jermaine Dye shot in the fourth that gave the Sox the lead. That fourth was the best chance to dig into Luke Hudson, who otherwise had stopped the Sox cold. But with runners on first and third and one out after the Dye homer, Cintron grounded into a 3-6-3 double play.
Cintron's doing a fine job this year as a backup infielder, but let him never start at DH again.
Record: 63-43 |
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