What`s turned things around?
”Good pitching,” said Jeff Torborg, before his White Sox saw their winning streak end at five games Wednesday night. ”Real good pitching.
”And some home runs. That`s helped. Our game has come together. We`ve played well in all aspects, but the pitching has been excellent, and we`re getting some power.”
Missing lately has been concern about the effects of the new ballpark-concern over the wind currents, the strangeness of the place, any built-in disadvantage for the home team. It may be because of a presentation Torborg made during a team meeting last week, when things weren`t going as well.
”It`s not the ballpark,” Torborg told them. ”It`s the execution in it.”
The pitching: Before Wednesday, Sox starting pitchers had gone into the eighth inning for eight straight games. The last time that happened was 1978, when the staff put together a string of 11 in a row. Those starters: Ken Kravec, Rich Wortham, Francisco Barrios, Rich Hinton, Jack Kucek and famed author Steve Stone.
The homers: Why now?
”We`re hitting the ball harder,” explained Robin Ventura. ”That`s pretty much what it is. If you hit the ball hard, it`ll go out.”
Bye, yogi: Carlton Fisk`s 359th homer Wednesday night broke a tie for 40th on the all-time list with Yogi Berra.
By the numbers: When Wayne Edwards was sent to Vancouver last month, Jack McDowell and most of the relievers affixed tiny ”45s” on the back of their caps. The number was also on the bullpen walls and on the phone out there-sentiment that isn`t found often in a game where jobs are jealously guarded.
”It was kind of neat,” Edwards said. ”It shows you can have friends that play baseball, too.”
Off his back: Noted Bulls fan Ozzie Guillen wanted a remembrance of the championship-a hat, a shirt, a jersey, something. He just wasn`t about to buy it.
Wednesday, he was wearing a Bulls commemorative T-shirt.
”Jerry Reinsdorf sent it to me,” laughed Guillen. ”That`s my raise.”
Swap: Left-hander Grady Hall (1-5, 5.71, 78 hits and 42 walks in 63 innings at Triple-A Vancouver) was sent Wednesday to the Cleveland Indians for Class-A right-hander Robert Person. Hall, 27, a graduate of Northwestern, was the club`s first-round pick in the 1986 June draft but never pitched in the big leagues.
”The organization wanted to give Grady Hall the opportunity to play in the major leagues,” said Sox vice president Larry Monroe, ”and we thought his chances would be better with another team because of our abundance of left-handed pitchers.”
Quick reminder: Thursday`s game starts at 12:35 p.m.
