If Michael Jordan hadn’t decided to give up on his baseball dream last March, chances are he’d probably be playing in Comiskey Park about now.
The fourth-place White Sox are in desperate need of something or someone to bring fans out during the dog days of August and September, and Jordan would have fit the bill quite nicely.
Twelve players have already made their major-league debuts with the Sox this year, including eight pitchers, the most on the South Side since 11 pitchers made their big-league debuts with the 1932 club.
But since Jordan is currently in the middle of yet another labor dispute, Sox fans will have to settle for watching Frank Thomas go for the home run title and manager Terry Bevington try to refrain from getting booted out of games.
Tuesday night in Comiskey, Thomas hit his league-leading 32nd homer and Bevington managed to survive all nine innings, but the Sox still lost 7-3 to California to fall a season-low 15 games under .500.
The Angels kept their perfect record against the Sox intact, going 8-for-8 as lefty Mark Langston improved to 12-2 on the season. California has averaged seven runs a game in Langston’s starts, making it easier for him to pitch his game.
“This is the most fun I’ve had playing the game,” Langston said.
The Sox have lost nine of their last 12 games, and are closer to last-place Minnesota (6 1/2 games ahead) than they are to a wild-card berth (9 games out).
Thomas went 3-for-3 with 3 RBIs off Langston to improve his career average against the Angels to .425, but it wasn’t nearly enough. After Thomas’ two-run, first-inning home run gave the Sox a quick lead, the Angels tied it in the third on J.T. Snow’s run-scoring single off Rod Bolton (0-1). Ozzie Guillen’s error led to three unearned runs in the Angels’ fourth, highlighted by a two-run double by Tim Salmon that put California on top to stay, 5-2.
“Our defense has been good for a couple months, maybe more,” said Bevington. “That’s maybe the second error in six weeks that’s really hurt us.”
Bevington’s decision to intentionally walk Jim Edmonds to face Salmon backfired. Salmon has hit .421 with 28 RBIs over his last 18 games.
“He’s really held it together,” said Angels manager Marcel Lachemann. “Everyone else has had their streaks, but he’s been there day in, day out, doing the little things.”
The Sox came into the game with a team ERA of 5.41, which would tie a 61-year-old franchise record for highest single-season ERA. Only 11 games and one pitching coach ago, the Sox ERA had been pared to 5.02 and it looked as though it may drop under the 5.00 mark for the first time all season. But Sox pitchers gave up a combined 92 runs in those 11 games before Tuesday, going 3-8, while opposing hitters batted a combined .349 against them.
For the year, opposing hitters are batting .285 against Sox pitching. Last year, when the Sox led the league in ERA at 3.96, they held opposing hitters to a .250 average.
