This was too good. Just too good.
On the night Ozzie Guillen, on crutches, makes his first appearance in Comiskey Park since his terrible injury, Craig Grebeck has the game of his life.
Grebeck drove in six runs with a single, a bases-loaded double and a two- run homer Thursday night as the White Sox crushed Nolan Ryan and the Texas Rangers 12-1 in front of 24,134 folks in Comiskey Park.
Jack McDowell, for the fifth time in as many starts, was the winning pitcher. Four of the victories came after Sox losses; three of them, including this one, after two in a row.
The fifth-the first-was on Opening Day.
”It feels good,” McDowell said of being 5-0. ”Looking back, the first couple were the ones that were good to get. I wasn`t throwing the ball great. ”I`m kind of in a groove. Feel pretty good right now.”
Ryan (0-1), on the other hand, pitching for the first time in 24 days after a layoff forced by a sore calf and Achilles tendon, was far from the Hall of Fame pitcher he is. He failed to finish the third inning, and seven of the runs were charged to him.
The night had been billed as Ryan vs. McDowell, with Guillen as special guest.
And Grebeck stole the show.
The real stuff got going after the teams traded first-inning runs.
George Bell, whose five hits-including his fourth homer-lifted his batting average to .356, singled off Ryan to open the second inning and stole second as Dan Pasqua struck out.
Ron Karkovice walked, Lance Johnson forced him, and Grebeck followed with a first-pitch liner that sunk in front of Kevin Reimer for a hit and his first RBI. A Tim Raines single scored Johnson, and it was 3-1, White Sox.
They put it away with four more runs in the third. Three came when Grebeck, batting with the bases loaded and two out, launched one off Floyd Bannister that came within a foot or two of clearing the wall.
”They told me it almost went out, and I didn`t believe it,” Grebeck said.
So it was 7-1. A Bell double and a single by Karkovice made it 8-1 in the fifth. Two innings later, Bell homered, high into the seats in left off Todd Burns. Two outs later, Johnson walked and Grebeck hit his homer.
Grebeck had come into this game 1 for his last 15 and batting .105. He almost knew this was coming.
”Even the nights in Boston, when I went 1 for 6 in the two games, I felt pretty good,” Grebeck said. ”I felt I was on the verge of starting to get some hits.
”This just paid off right here.”
There was more to come. After Ventura doubled with one out in the eighth, Bell sent one to the gap in right-center. He needed a triple for the cycle. He went for it. He was out standing up and laughing.
Thinking about it?
”Definitely,” said Bell. ”I got caught.”
Almost lost in all this was McDowell`s performance. The only baserunner off him over the final six innings was Dean Palmer, who singled and was erased on a double play.
”With no strikeouts, too,” McDowell said. ”It was one of those games when I was able to make pitches.”
But this was Grebeck`s night. Before the game, he had chatted with Ozzie Guillen.
”He said he was sticking up for me,” Grebeck said.
In that respect, on this night, Guillen wasn`t needed.
”Amazing,” said McDowell, who was in the trainers` room when Guillen met with the media. ”With Ozzie`s big press conference today, and then for him to go out and do that. . . . ”
Amazing.
