Paul Konerko was flying around the bases at breakneck speed Friday night–and it was only batting practice.
“You like this atmosphere, don’t you?” manager Jerry Manuel said to Konerko. “This is like Hollywood to you.”
When the real action began, Konerko did his star turn, leading the White Sox to a 5-4 victory over Cleveland with his bat and glove. He hit a two-run home run in the second and saved at least two runs from scoring in the seventh with a diving catch of a bases-loaded Jim Thome liner.
“There are good players and great players,” Konerko said. “And there’s always that question of whether you can play in the postseason and do things on a championship ballclub. It would be nice to get that label early in your career. There are a bunch of guys here who aren’t just happy to have good statistics. They want to win and be thought of as winners.”
A crowd of 42,526, the 442nd consecutive sellout at Jacobs Field, saw the Indians drop 8 1/2 games behind the Sox.
Sox General Manager Ron Schueler was in dire need of a good manicurist after the damage he did to his fingernails Friday. James Baldwin and Kelly Wunsch can help pay for it because they were the root cause.
Baldwin was staked to a 5-1 lead, thanks in part to Konerko’s 17th homer in the second and a shot by Jose Valentin in the third. But Baldwin gave up two runs in the fourth and allowed three singles to the first four batters in the fifth, watching the lead dwindle to 5-4.
Manuel lifted Baldwin with one out in the fifth, denying him of a chance for his 15th victory. Rookie Mark Buehrle came on and induced Thome into a double play.
Baldwin was worried his ailing shoulder still affects his performance.
“I’m frustrated right now,” he said. “It’s something I hope I can deal with. I don’t know what it is, but I’m still not 100 percent.”
The Sox blew several chances to break the game open after that. They had runners on second and third and no outs in the fifth with the heart of the order up, but Frank Thomas, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Lee all failed to push across a run. The Sox loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth, but Valentin flied out.
Bobby Howry relieved in the seventh after Wunsch walked the first two men on eight pitches and issued a one-out walk to load the bases. But Konerko saved the day with a dive to his left to snare a wicked liner off Thome’s bat, preventing at least two runs.
“I figured it was down the line,” Howry said. “Bad pitch.”
Howry then retired David Segui on a fly to end the threat and pitched a perfect eighth before Keith Foulke registered his 29th save.
The Sox have baseball’s best record at 85-56, but Manuel said they probably won’t be favored to win the pennant.
“I have no idea why,” Manuel said. “They seem to always come up with reasons why we shouldn’t be [favored]. I don’t listen or read, but what I gather every now and then is [people saying], `You have the bad defense, you have the young team, you have this and that [weakness].’ But that doesn’t bother me.”
