Less than a month ago, the White Sox had a simple choice.
Either start winning or management would start going young.
But in one of the strangest turns in a bizarre season, the Sox are winning and getting younger at the same time.
The Sox swept Cincinnati out of Comiskey Park with a 7-5 triumph Thursday night, giving them 11 victories in their last 13 games and 16 out of 19.
They’re now 10 games behind division-leading Minnesota with 100 games to play.
Paul Konerko’s grand slam and five RBIs paced the Sox, who blew a 5-1 lead but bounced back to win thanks to a costly catcher’s interference call on Jason LaRue.
Harold Baines sustained a severely pulled right hip flexor while trying to check his swing in the seventh inning and was forced to leave the game.
Baines was placed on the 15-day disabled list and his future with the Sox is in doubt.
“I just hope he is able to come back and be part of what we have going on,” James Baldwin said.
Outfielder Aaron Rowand was called up from Triple-A Charlotte to take Baines’ place, joining Jeff Liefer, Joe Crede, Matt Ginter, McKay Christensen and Ken Vining as recent minor-league call-ups.
The Sox are now two wins away from the .500 mark, after falling to 15 games below .500 as recently as May 23.
“It’s a crazy game,” Konerko said. “Everyone tries to figure it out, but it doesn’t make much sense.”
The Sox jumped on Reds starter Osvaldo Fernandez in the first inning, taking a 4-0 lead on Konerko’s opposite-field grand slam. Magglio Ordonez’s homer in the third inning, his third in the last three games, made it 5-1.
Baldwin bailed himself out of trouble in the fifth, but fell apart in the sixth when the Reds scored three to pull to within a run at 5-4. After Pokey Reese stole second and third in the seventh, Brady Clark’s pinch-hit sacrifice fly off Kelly Wunsch tied it 5-5.
LaRue was called for catcher’s interference in the seventh when his glove touched the bat of Chris Singleton on a foul ball, sending Singleton to first and Ray Durham to second.
Carlos Lee followed with an opposite-field ground-rule double off Scott Sullivan to put the Sox back on top and, after an intentional walk to Ordonez, Konerko’s sacrifice fly made it 7-5.
“It looks like things are starting to turn our way,” manager Jerry Manuel said.
