Before Sunday’s 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox, White Sox center fielder Aaron Rowand said his only goal was to help the team win and get into the postseason.
After the game, Rowand sat at his locker. He was pleased with the victory, but he characterized his day as “a bad day on the ball field.”
He was being far too hard on himself.
The box score read that Rowand was 0 for 4, but he was directly involved in two plays that led to a White Sox run and prevented a Boston run.
Rowand’s strike to home plate in the third inning cut down Boston’s Kevin Youkilis and kept the game scoreless. In the seventh, after Jose Valentin singled and stole second, Rowand’s deep fly to right field allowed Valentin to advance to third. He then scored on Juan Uribe’s sacrifice fly to give the Sox the lead.
Rowand has been doing so many big things the last couple of months–be it exceptional defense or swinging a hot bat–that perhaps the little, subtle things get lost.
What’s not subtle, however, is that the Sox may have found their center fielder for the next few years.
“He shouldn’t have any problems being there,” Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “He should be the center fielder for as long as he wants to.”
With a team-leading .301 average, 16 home runs and 13 stolen bases, Rowand is having the kind of season the Sox have been waiting for.
“We expected this from him a while back,” Sox general manager Ken Williams said. “He’s been a good player. He was a good player in college and a good player in the minor leagues. It’s nice to see he’s finally starting to have some productivity here.”
Rowand has been caught between a rock and a hard place the last couple of seasons. The Sox believed they were close to winning and didn’t think they could be patient with Rowand, 26, so they went out and got an experienced leadoff hitter in Kenny Lofton in 2002.
Then Rowand seriously injured himself in a dirt-bike accident two winters ago, cutting into his playing time. He came back to find the Sox once again in a “win now” mentality, resulting in the first acquisition of Carl Everett in July 2003.
“We have been–and still are–in win mode,” Williams said. “Sometimes you have to make tough decisions with your win mode, to go forward and sacrifice a little of those opportunities for younger players.”
Rowand had no doubt he could play at the major-league level on an everyday basis, if given the opportunity.
But at the start of this season he was sometimes in, sometimes out of the lineup as he struggled at the plate through mid-May.
“A lot of people had their doubts about me going into this season, and understandably so,” Rowand said.
“I haven’t played a full season yet where I’m in there every day. Even this year I’ve missed some time … maybe my numbers could be better than they are if I had played every day.”
Going into Tuesday’s series opener against the Detroit Tigers, Rowand has 316 at-bats, a career high.
A two-month tear at the plate lifted his average nearly 80 points before a poor last home stand leveled off his average.
But it’s a sign of the confidence Guillen has in Rowand that he was allowed to work through his problems.
“If it was earlier in the year, I might have been sitting down,” Rowand acknowledged. “Once you establish yourself and you know you don’t have to put pressure on yourself every game, it’s easier to go up there and relax.”
More than anyone else in the Sox lineup, Rowand has become Guillen’s most versatile man in the batting order, hitting anywhere from first to seventh, where he was for the Boston series.
“The good thing about this kid is I can put him anywhere in the lineup,” Guillen said. “He has good speed and can play the game.”
Rowand also has run down nearly everything hit to center field. Sox bench coach Harold Baines, a good outfielder until knee injuries turned him into a designated hitter, said the key to Rowand’s defense is the exceptional jump he gets on balls, and Rowand agrees.
“Getting jumps is probably what I do best,” he said. “I’m not a burner, but I get good reads off balls. I’m more quick than fast. That’s the only reason I can play center field.”
Rowand has heard the rumors the last couple of seasons that the Sox need to get a bona fide center fielder, a veteran with a track record.
He hopes he has silenced some of the doubters.
“It’s a very unforgiving game,” he said. “It’s what have you done for me lately.”
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Red-hot Rowand
A look at his stellar last 52 games, from June 15- Aug. 15.
AVG: 324
HR: 11
RBI: 24
DOUBLES: 14
SB-ATT: 9-9
OBP: .371
SLG: .585
E: 2
