The White Sox are, at long last, beginning to look like a pretty good team.
Jack McDowell? Just another near-masterpiece.
McDowell took a no-hitter into the eighth inning Tuesday night, then settled for a three-hit shutout as the Sox stopped the Seattle Mariners 4-0 in Comiskey Park.
It was the fifth victory in a row for the Sox. They did that earlier this month, but those five-three against the foundering Royals-somehow seemed a little soft.
Nothing soft about these-and nothing at all soft about Tuesday night`s win.
There were three White Sox home runs, by Robin Ventura, Frank Thomas and Dan Pasqua. Craig Grebeck had a pair of doubles, one of which turned into a run. In all, the Sox had seven extra-base hits, a season high.
”Everything,” said McDowell, ”is starting to click.”
No one was more in click-mode Tuesday night than Jack McDowell.
The no-hitter died with one out in the eighth when Scott Bradley bounced a sharp single between Ventura and Ozzie Guillen.
”We were going inside with the pitch,” said McDowell (9-3), ”and I kind of yanked it and left it out over the plate, a pitch he was able to do something with.”
There weren`t many of those.
”He wasn`t really overpowering,” said Seattle`s Pete O`Brien, ”but he was up in the zone, and nobody was patient enough to make him come down.”
Through seven, the Mariners didn`t come close to a hit. The sharpest balls hit off him both came in the third-and both brought grins from the right-hander.
Bradley, leading off that inning, hit a one-hopper to the mound that McDowell adroitly knocked down with a blind backhand, retrieved and threw to first for the first out.
Then with two out, Greg Briley hit a smash off McDowell that caromed to Guillen, who turned it into a routine out, if that can be described as routine.
”He got two breaks early,” said O`Brien, ”but other than that, we couldn`t touch him.”
That`s happened before.
In his second start of the season, McDowell had a two-hitter in Detroit. On June 9, he was perfect through six at Kansas City before winding up with a four-hitter. This was first big-league shutout.
”I feel like I`ve been in a groove pretty much all year,” said McDowell, whose six completions lead the league. ”I feel solid.
”It feels a lot like the second half last year, where every time I go out there, I know I have a good chance of throwing a quality game.”
There was a lot of quality in this one. The home runs by Ventura and Thomas, off Dave Burba (0-1) in an otherwise good first big-league start, were both smoked.
It was the third in three games for Thomas, suddenly starting to look like an actual home-run hitter. Thomas doesn`t choose to see it quite that way.
”I don`t feel I`m going to hit 40 home runs,” said Thomas, who has 13.
”I could, but if I did that, I`d probably sacrifice my average a little bit. And I don`t want to be a .260 guy hitting 40 home runs.”
Pasqua`s homer, his fifth and second in two nights, came off a left-hander, Rob Murphy.
It was the first time since April 23 the Sox had hit three home runs in a game.
”We`re starting to put the balls in the seats,” said manager Jeff Torborg, ”and it isn`t just Frank. The other guys are starting to poke them, too.”
A few pokes, and a few quality starts. In eight straight games, the starters have pitched into the eighth inning. The defense, scary at times for a team that played so well a year ago, has turned once more into a positive constant.
The big hits are back. The breaks are starting to even out.
”Early in the season, when we were going through bad streaks, it seemed like one part of the game would fall,” said McDowell. ”Each individual game, we were struggling. We couldn`t really have all cylinders running.
”Now, we are.”
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Next: Seattle, Wednesday 7:35 p.m., SportsChannel
