It looked like there might be hope, after all. The show the White Sox put on from the All-Star break until last weekend was terrific entertainment. Lots of fun. Great to watch. But it wasn’t championship baseball.
Home runs, see, always stop. They stopped in Seattle on Saturday. So did the Sox.
So they had to manufacture runs, move runners along, hit with two out. That’s championship baseball. That’s an intimidating lineup. That’s what the Sox never do consistently.
But they started doing that Monday. Started scoring runs on Kansas City the way Kansas City has been scoring runs on everybody else.
Carl Everett cut down his swing and dropped in a two-out, two-strike RBI single in the first to score Robbie Alomar. And Jose Valentin cut down his swing to line a two-out RBI single to center.
Baseball like it oughta be.
Like it has to be.
OF COURSE: Joe Crede’s two-out, three-run homer didn’t hurt, either.
SAME GOES: For Frank Thomas’ solo shot.
PLUS: Valentin’s.
AND: It would’ve meant something if Scott Schoeneweis could’ve gotten, I don’t know, an out.
YOU, TOO: Kelly Wunsch.
TOM GORDON: Same deal.
THAT’S THE THING: Whether you get home runs or two-out singles, you still have to pitch. The Sox relievers know this, right?
VIEW FROM THE TOP: Part of Seattle reliever Jeff Nelson’s rant about the Mariners’ lack of moves at the trading deadline: “You watch these other contending teams–New York, Boston, Oakland, Chicago–they’re very good teams as well, but they want to be better. And they better themselves by going out and making these trades.”
Look at that. I mean, when’s the last time anyone put the Sox in the same penthouse as the Yankees, Red Sox and A’s?
JUST ASKING: We’re getting back to that kind of stuff this week, right?
TIP TO MARK BUEHRLE: You walk Rey Sanchez–Rey Sanchez, do you hear me?–you get what you deserve.
STEVE-MAIL: From Mark Liptak: “The Sox are in a divisional pennant chase. They have the toughest schedule among the three teams. They have to keep winning because they fell so far behind the Royals in the first place. Yet Manager Gandhi sticks on the field his split squad spring training lineup in an important game Sunday! Funny, the Mariners didn’t seem tired after playing a Saturday night game. They had their best lineup out there.”
The Sox lineup Sunday was missing four starters. The Cubs were missing three. The Sox couldn’t pitch or catch, and lost. The Cubs got pitching and defense, and won. Connect the dots, people.
MONEY TALKS: I still think Dusty Baker let Matt Clement hit with the bases loaded with two outs in the sixth inning Sunday because he didn’t trust his bullpen to go three innings and didn’t like his pinch hitting, but the Cubs are paying him $14 million to be right. And he was.
GONE: Things went so badly for the Dodgers on their last road trip that Jeromy Burnitz was thrown out after a game.
THE PATRIOT: Mike Ditka was in Las Vegas recently when he came across five American servicemen who had just returned from Iraq. Ditka not only bought them dinner, but gave each of them a $1,000 chip to get them started at the tables, according to the Las Vegas Sun, which added that Ditka dropped $60,000.
COINCIDENCE? Funny how Anthony Thomas found a way to get out of bed OK for three days in a row right around the time some backup ran 50 yards.
THE END: Tennis player Nicolas Kiefer, after touring Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles during a tournament: “I can’t believe this is somebody’s house. He has 100 employees and eight girlfriends. Unbelievable.”
AND ANOTHER THING: Bobby Hill should’ve been called up when Mark Grudzielanek got hurt. But Hill is injured. As Dean Wormer might say: Bad, stuck and hurting is no way to go to the major leagues, son.
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srosenbloom@tribune.com
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