They certainly aren’t the South Side Hitmen. Not yet, anyway.
Ten games into the 1998 season and the White Sox have scored more than five runs only twice. Sunday against former teammates Wilson Alvarez and Roberto Hernandez was the latest exercise in offensive futility as the Sox fell 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Comiskey Park.
“It’s a very good time for a road trip,” said Frank Thomas as the Sox prepared for nine games out of town. “We really stunk this homestand . We didn’t swing the bats at all. There are a lot of peaks and valleys in a season, and right now we’re in a valley.”
The Sox have managed only 12 runs over the last seven games, five in the last 36 innings. They have scored one or no runs in three of the last four games and would have been shut out Sunday but for a pinch home run by Jeff Abbott in the eighth.
“Usually you have one or two guys who aren’t going that well, but as a team we’re not attacking the ball as well as we would like to,” manager Jerry Manuel said. “If someone would have told me (before the season) that was a concern, I would have doubted them very much. It becomes a concern because it’s an ongoing process that affects the team, not just one player.”
The Sox couldn’t even take advantage of help when it was offered. Hernandez took over for Alvarez to start the ninth and walked three to load the bases and bring up Magglio Ordonez as the potential winning run with one out. Ordonez promptly shot a designer double-play ball to second to end the game.
Tampa Bay’s 6-4 record is the best start for a first-year expansion team, and the Devil Rays are leading the league in hitting, even with Wade Boggs out the last three games.
“If we keep a team to four runs, we should be better than a four-run team,” Manuel said.
