When Matt Stairs lifted the long fly ball to right-center field, Dave Martinez wasn’t thinking about Jerry Reinsdorf. He was thinking about finding a way to catch the ball.
As Martinez ran full speed toward the green wall, Roberto Hernandez didn’t cross his thoughts. Neither did Wilson Alvarez or Danny Darwin. Martinez had all he could handle trying to outrun the baseball.
Martinez had almost run out of warning track when he overtook the ball. He stuck his right hand in the air, snatched the ball, then smacked face-first off the padded wall. Stairs had been denied and the White Sox would go on to beat Oakland 3-0 Tuesday.
“That’s part of the game,” Martinez said. `I knew I had a chance to get it. Cam (Mike Cameron) called `Fence!’ but I thought I could catch the ball. I had to run into the wall to catch it.”
So much for anyone thinking the White Sox will go through the motions the rest of the season as a protest–consciously or subconsciously–against the money-saving, prospect-hoarding trade that may have handed the San Francisco Giants a National League West title.
“I’d love to win,” Martinez said. “This is my 12th season playing, and I’ve never been to the postseason. I’m not willing to give up, and I’ll never be. That’s my ultimate goal.”
While Sox players felt last week’s trades of Hernandez, Alvarez, Darwin and Harold Baines sucker-punched them, the fog seemed to lift as they moved from Southern California to the Bay Area. They led in only one of four games in Anaheim but seemed to regain their sense of balance during a two-game series with the punchless Athletics.
“When we step on the field now, we’re trying to win games instead of mourning the guys who got traded,” third baseman Robin Ventura said. “There are so many things that go on that you can’t control. It’s easy to lose your focus.”
Two players–believed to be Ventura and Frank Thomas–called a players-only meeting before Sunday’s game to address the posttrade malaise. General Manager Ron Schueler had a talk of his own Tuesday, telling players he would “not tolerate” them giving up on the season prematurely.
Ventura believes the two meetings helped the Sox begin to move forward.
“When you talk about things, clear things up, everybody gets on the same page,” said Ventura, who received reassurances from Schueler that he will not be traded. “It gets you refocused and you can move on.”
After Wednesday night, the Sox trail the Central-leading Cleveland Indians by only 4 1/2 games with 51 games remaining. The Indians, who will play six more double-headers, have 54 games left–and four starting pitchers on the disabled list.
Can the Sox catch them?
“We take our games one at a time,” manager Terry Bevington said after Tuesday’s victory. “We thought we had a chance to win today, and we think we have a chance to win tomorrow. . . . When you’re 4 1/2 games out, you have a shot.”
For the White Sox to pull off one of the least likely stretch runs in baseball history, five players are key. They are:
Albert Belle: Where has all the bat speed gone? Pitchers are throwing fastballs and sliders past the White Sox’s cleanup hitter, who is hitting only .173 since the All-Star break.
He has been locked into his All-Star form for only about a month this season. Throw out May and he is batting .246 with 14 home runs and 57 runs batted in for 84 games. This was hardly how he built his reputation.
After leading the AL with 126 RBIs in 1995 and 148 last year, Belle was 10th in the league with 79 through Wednesday–and those numbers have been helped by having Thomas, the league’s leading hitter, batting in front of him. Belle’s inconsistency is among the biggest reasons the Sox have scored two runs or fewer in 34 of the first 111 games. That’s more times than either Minnesota (31) or Milwaukee (30). Amazing.
Belle, like Thomas and perhaps Ventura, is capable of carrying the team for weeks at a time. He is definitely due. After going 0 for 4 Wednesday night, the $55 million man has no multi-RBI games in his last 21, and no home runs in his last 67 at-bats. He hasn’t hit a game-tying or go-ahead home run since May 25.
Count on Belle to cause the Indians some sweat when the teams meet seven times in 10 days Sept. 5-14. He has driven in 12 runs in five games against his old team, helping the Sox take a 3-2 edge in the season series.
Matt Karchner: Bevington said he plans to replace Hernandez with a “bullpen-by-committee” approach, but no one is surprised it was Karchner who finished the first two victories after the trade. The hard-throwing right-hander is having a great season, going 16 2/3 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run at one point.
Karchner, who leads the Sox with 12 holds, was 2 for 3 in save situations through Tuesday. He made a statement with a perfect ninth inning to preserve a crazy 14-12 victory over Anaheim last Thursday, the day of the controversial trade.
“It’s kind of an ego role,” he said of the closer’s job. “But I could blow a game just as easily in the eighth inning as the ninth. If I get killed, I blow the game either way.”
Karchner appears unflappable on the mound. The White Sox hope he will anchor a bullpen that includes veteran left-handers Tony Castillo and Chuck McElroy and young right-handers Bill Simas, Carlos Castillo and Nelson Cruz.
“No matter what happens, who they trade, we want to win,” Karchner said. “Nobody’s going to go out to lose. We’ve worked too hard to get where we are. We’re not going to lay down and die. We still have a great team here.”
Doug Drabek: A month ago, he probably should have been dropped from the starting rotation. Now he is pitching like the Sox hoped he would all along, going 2-1 with a 2.67 earned-run average since the All-Star break.
Drabek is spotting his pitches better, especially his curveball. It has become a major weapon against hitters who had been sitting on his fastball after he fell behind in the count.
Drabek has a track record for strong finishes. He has a career record of 61-64 in the first half of the season and 85-55 after June. The Sox need him to stay on track because they expect a roller-coaster ride from the rest of the rotation, including Jaime Navarro.
The Opening Day starter entered Wednesday night’s game having gone 2-2 with a 9.29 ERA in five starts since the All-Star break. James Baldwin is 1-3 with a 5.83 ERA. The rest of the rotation will be filled out by Jason Bere, who will make only one or two more starts on his rehabilitation assignment, and a cast of rookies headed by left-hander Scott Eyre and right-hander Chris Clemons.
Eyre faces Seattle left-hander Jeff Fassero Thursday night, with Clemons drawing Randy Johnson Friday night. Good luck.
Ray Durham: One wonders whether Schueler was looking right at Durham when he told players on Tuesday they have two more months to prove they should stay with the Sox. While Bevington still defends the athletic second baseman, he has been a bust as a leadoff man and has a knack for making errors at the worst times.
Durham led off Wednesday night’s game with a home run and ended the night 4 for 5, but he has only one walk in his last 60 plate appearances. Durham has stolen 25 bases but has been caught 13 times, which leads the league.
He is capable of closing kicks, hitting .333 last August. The Sox lineup could use a spark.
Robin Ventura: For Ventura, the key is to stay healthy. The Sox need his contributions not only on the field but in the clubhouse, where he was missed badly while out with a broken leg.
Schueler says Ventura may have the most reason to be angry at the organization for the trades of last week. But he didn’t spend a lot of time pouting.
“You can’t just come in here and not play,” Ventura said. “That’s not fair to the young guys coming up. You may not like that we traded those four guys, but you still have to go out and try to win games.”
And what about Reinsdorf’s statement that anyone who thinks the Sox can catch the Indians is crazy?
“I don’t think he can win games,” Ventura said of the Sox chairman. “We still have to go out and play, no matter what he thinks. We don’t like it, but we don’t have to believe it.”
