Though he is only in his first full big-league season, Frank Thomas thinks he knows the strike zone pretty well.
And his major-league-leading 59 walks would seem to bear him out. But after doing a U-turn from home plate to the White Sox dugout six times in two games against Texas on Friday and Saturday, Thomas wasn`t exactly sure what was going on.
Was he paying the price of being a budding young superstar and not getting the borderline calls? Or had his batting eye simply deserted him for a short spell?
Thomas fanned three times Friday against the Rangers (once looking), and three more times Saturday, when he went down on a called third strike twice.
”I don`t want to whine about it,” he said before Sunday`s game. ”But a lot of the strikes that were called on me lately were not strikes. But I could see it in (the umpires`) eyes, that even if I would take a ball that`s not close, they`re going to call it (a strike).
”It`s killing me. It`s tough to go up and hit like that. I`m really frustrated, though I know I can`t whine about it.”
Thomas, who has 49 RBIs to lead the Sox, went six straight games without an RBI until his third-inning solo homer Sunday. He had never gone more than four games in a row without an RBI this year.
”That is a long streak for me,” he said. ”I`ve been in a little drought-a tough period. But I haven`t changed anything. I`ve been having a great season, and I just have to keep it up. I know that I`m going to have some hard times. I just have to calm back down and not show any emotions.”
Thomas has reached safely in 64 of his 66 games. Besides his team-leading 11th home run Sunday, he added a leadoff single to start the Sox`s wild, winning 10th-inning rally. He also walked three more times (twice on 3-and-2 pitches) to prove he wasn`t going to let the men in blue get under his skin.
”I`ve been getting some pretty close calls in this series,” he said.
”But I`m not going to let that change my style.”
