The White Sox played grenade and exploded all over the place Thursday.
The Sox erupted after manager Jim Fregosi blew his top. They scored seven runs in the eighth inning and went on to take a 10-3 victory over Toronto at Exhibition Stadium.
The victory could be a costly one for Fregosi. He exploded during an argument with umpires Dale Ford and Rich Garcia on a strike call in the fifth. He eventually bumped both umpires and had to be restrained by his coaches. The outburst probably will lead to a suspension.
”It`s an unfortunate thing,” said Fregosi, who was considerably more sedate after the big victory. ”I don`t like to lose my temper. Maybe all those runners we left on base in the first three innings got the best of me.” Ford and Garcia both said there was contact, which usually means a few days off for the manager.
The dispute started when Gary Redus was called out on strikes on a Phil Niekro fastball in the fifth. Ford ruled that the ball nicked the plate, which infuriated Fregosi.
Between innings, Ford and Fregosi started going at it, and Fregosi was given a quick hook. But that was only the start.
”I was arguing on the pitch,” Fregosi said. ”I was yelling, but not necessarily at Ford. I guess he thought I was yelling at him, and he threw me out.”
”I could see the pitch better than him,” Ford said. ”I don`t put up with guys yelling at me from the bench.”
Fregosi got up in Ford`s face and started chewed out the umpire
Sox 10, Blue Jays 3
WHITE SOX ab r h bi Toronto ab r h bi
Guillen ss 5 1 2 0 Fernandez ss 4 0 0 0
Redus lf 4 1 1 2 Beniquez rf 4 1 1 1
Baines dh 5 0 0 0 Barfield cf 4 0 0 0
Calderon rf 5 1 1 0 GBell lf 4 2 2 1
Hassey c 2 1 2 0 Fielder dh 3 0 1 0
Fisk c 1 1 0 0 Moseby dh 1 0 0 0
GWalker 1b 4 2 2 1 Gruber 3b 4 0 1 1
Hill 3b 3 2 1 3 Iorg 2b 3 0 0 0
KWilliams cf 3 0 0 1 Upshaw 1b 3 0 1 0
Lyons cf 0 0 0 0 CMoore c 3 0 0 0
Manrique 2b 4 1 1 3
Totals 36 10 10 10 Totals 33 3 6 3
WHITE SOX 000 003 070–10
Toronto 000 100 101– 3
Game Winning RBI–Hill (4).
E–CMoore. LOB–WHITE SOX 5, Toronto 3. 2B–Hassey, GWalker 2, Calderon. 3B– Guillen. HR–Beniquez (6), Hill (5), Manrique (3), Redus (8), GBell (36). SB– Guillen (19). SF–KWilliams.
IP H R ER BB SO
WHITE SOX
Bannister W,8-9 9 6 3 3 0 2
Toronto
PNiekro L,7-12 5 2-3 5 3 3 3 3
Eichhorn 1 1-3 0 0 0 0 1
Musselman 1-3 2 4 4 2 1
Henke 1-3 3 3 3 0 0
Lavelle 1 1-3 0 0 0 0 1
WP–PNiekro.
Umpires–Home, Ford; First, Garcia; Second, Reed; Third, Hirschbeck.
T–2:48. A–45,152.
How they scored
TORONTO FOURTH–With one out, Beniquez homered. One run.
WHITE SOX SIXTH–With two outs, Hassey singled. Walker walked. Hill homered. Three runs.
TORONTO SEVENTH–With two outs, Bell singled. Fielder singled. Gruber singled, scoring Bell. One run.
WHITE SOX EIGHTH–Musselman pitching. With one out, Calderon doubled. Fisk walked. Walker doubled, scoring Calderon. Hill walked. Henke replaced Musselman. Hairston, pinch-hitting for Williams, hit sacrifice fly. Manrique hit three-run homer. Guillen tripled. Redus hit two-run homer. Seven runs.
TORONTO NINTH–With one out, Bell homered. One run.
with colorful language that was picked up by a TV microphone on the field.
”He sprayed tobacco juice on me,” Ford said.
The situation then got out of hand when Fregosi bumped Ford. At this point, Ford started to walk away from Fregosi, who was being restrained by Garcia, the first-base umpire.
Fregosi stood on the field for a couple seconds and seemed ready to head back for the dugout. But he wanted Ford again.
”After that, I don`t know what happened,” Fregosi said. ”I lost it.`
According to sources, Ford called Fregosi something of a personal nature. ”I don`t know what was said,” Ford said. ”It was like any other argument. You don`t really remember.”
Fregosi tried to push Garcia out of the way and things really started to get ugly. Finally, Sox coaches Doug Rader and Art Kusyner came out to restrain Fregosi.
The umpires thought the argument started after the scoreboard replayed the disputed pitch. Fregosi, however, said he never saw the replay. After the next half inning, Garcia informed Toronto officials that they would walk off the field if another instant replay were shown.
Fregosi missed most of the fireworks that happened after his explosion. Niekro looked impressive in making his first start for Toronto since being acquired from Cleveland Sunday. He shut out the Sox for five inning, but they got to the 48-year-old knuckleballer in the sixth.
With the Sox trailing 1-0, Ron Hassey singled and Greg Walker singled after two outs. Donnie Hill then connected for a three-run homer, his fifth of the year.
After the Blue Jays cut the lead to one in the seventh, the Sox broke the game open in the eighth primarily off Tom Henke, one of baseball`s top reliever.
Jeff Musselman came on in relief of Mark Eichhorn to start the inning, and the Sox jumped all over him. Walker doubled home Ivan Calderon with the first run of the inning. Henke came on with the bases loaded and one out.
Pinch-hitter Jerry Hairston greeted him with a sacrifice fly to deep right.
Fred Manrique then cleared the fence with a three-run homer, his second in two days.
Ozzie Guillen kept up the deluge with a triple. Redus applied the knockout punch with a two-run homer.
The runs were more than enough for Floyd Bannister. He held the Blue Jays on one hit for six innings, although the hit was a solo homer by Juan Beniquez in the fourth.
The Blue Jays nicked Bannister for a run in the seventh on Kelly Gruber`s two-out single, scoring George Bell, who also homered in the ninth.
