Hey, things aren`t exactly bubbling over with joy in Minneapolis, either. In another game they could have won but didn`t, the White Sox bowed to the Detroit Tigers 6-4 Thursday night in front of 20,247 in Tiger Stadium.
The loss was the third in the four-game series for the Sox, who nonetheless head for New York a game closer to the AL West lead-still 1 1/2 games behind-than they were when they arrived here.
Which wasn`t much consolation to Jeff Torborg.
”I really thought we were going to win this sucker,” he said.
They could have. One play-a play not made by Tim Raines-killed them.
It came in the second. Already trailing 2-0 on one of Lou Whitaker`s two homers, Jeff Carter (0-1) filled the bases on walks with two out. That brought Alan Trammell to the plate.
He hit a line fly in the general direction of Raines in left. He stood there a moment, ran tentatively and, at the last moment, lunged to his left. The ball skipped past and rolled to the wall, Trammell had a double (his 2,000th big-league hit) and the Tigers had three more runs.
”I didn`t see it at all, the whole time,” said Raines, who lost the ball in the lights. ”I ran to where I thought it would be and put my glove out, hoping it would fall in. I wasn`t so lucky.”
”Defensive plays the last four or five games cost us,” said Torborg.
This one cost Carter a chance at a big-league victory before a probable trip back to Triple-A Vancouver.
”Nobody`s trying to snow the kid,” said Torborg. ”He knows what we`re doing. In Boston, I told him exactly what it was going to be.”
The totals for his two starts: eight innings, six hits, seven runs
(earned), five walks, two strikeouts. Four of the runs, in all, weren`t entirely his fault, but it probably didn`t matter. Both visits to the big leagues this time around were designed to be brief.
He accepted, like a big-leaguer, his share of the heat for what took place in the second inning.
”The thing I was upset about,” said Carter, ”was, that (the misplay)
happens, it`s no big deal if I hadn`t have walked three guys.”
Carter went on to retire 10 of the next 11 batters before leaving after five. The one hit, a single by Tony Phillips, stayed in the infield.
”He settled down and helped us immensely,” said Torborg. ”He did a nice job.”
And the Sox made their typical comeback.
Singles by Lance Johnson, Joey Cora and Ozzie Guillen loaded the bases with nobody out in the third. Raines flied out to short right, but Robin Ventura singled home a run, and another came home on a flyball by Frank Thomas.
In the fifth, Raines drew a one-out walk, hustled to third when Cecil Fielder failed to come up with Mark Leiter`s throw on Ventura`s bunt and scored on a throwing error by Leiter (5-2). It was 5-3.
Whitaker`s second homer, this one off Brian Drahman and just over Mike Huff`s leap in right, gave the Tigers a three-run lead. But a pinch double by Craig Grebeck and Huff`s RBI single in the eighth brought the Sox within two once again.
That`s how it ended, as did three of the games in this series-with the Tigers winning. Comebacks ranging from nice to heroic, but Sox losses nonetheless.
Raines felt as bad about this as it was reasonable to feel. Sometimes, there isn`t much a guy can do.
”There`s certain areas where you can hit the ball, and the ball will stay in the lights the whole way,” Raines said.
”I just didn`t see anything but lights. I kept running for it, hoping it would come from under the lights, but it never did.”
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Next: At New York, Friday 6:30 p.m., WGN-TV. Ch. 9
