The ball flew off leadoff hitter Ray Durham’s bat, sailing into the deep reaches of right field. It looked, at least, like a double. Anaheim Angels right-fielder Tim Salmon made sure it wasn’t. Salmon chased the ball down, extended his glove and flicked it out of the air. One out.
It was only the bottom of the first inning. But in the White Sox’s 3-1 loss Sunday to Anaheim, a deja vu-all-over-again affair that evoked the Angels’ 3-1 win Saturday, one play may have set the tone for the contest.
“[Salmon] made a big play there to stop us maybe from getting a leadoff double that could possibly have changed the way the game went,” said White Sox manager Jerry Manuel.
The White Sox (7-6) wasted a solid pitching performance by Jim Parque, who gave up three runs in six innings while working his way out of various trouble spots. The bullpen worked three scoreless innings of relief.
But Angels starter Scott Schoeneweis was even better, yielding just one run on three hits in eight innings. He walked only two.
“Scott did a tremendous job of pitching inside, utilizing both sides of the plate, and he changed speeds,” said Angels manager Mike Scioscia.
Schoeneweis was helped, Manuel said, by the Sox’s lack of patience at the plate.
“We just made too many outs when we had hitter’s counts,” Manuel said. “The quality of the at-bat has to be a little bit better from each player. We can’t continue to get ourselves out.”
Monday night the Seattle Mariners, who scored 47 runs in a three-game weekend sweep of Toronto, come to town for a three-game series. How do the Sox plan on slowing down Seattle’s offense?
“It’s tough to score here at Comiskey,” Manuel said.
His team’s play in the last two games serves as proof enough.
