He’ll have to live with the second-guessing, and that’s fine with Willie Harris. The White Sox’s speedster, inserted as a pinch-
runner for Joe Crede in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday, was thrown out trying to steal second for the final out in Sunday’s 5-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners before 23,324 at U.S. Cellular Field.
The attempted steal came after Harris elected not to try advancing from first to second on a long flyout.
Harris said the possibility of tagging up “could have gone either way.” As for the attempted steal, “everybody in the stands knew what I was in the game for. I got a good jump, [ex-Sox catcher Miguel[ Olivo made a great throw, and that was the game.
“As a base stealer sometimes you have a sense whether you’re going to make it or not. I really thought I was going to make it.”
The Sox thought they were going to complete their comeback too. With the Sox trailing 5-3, Aaron Rowand led off the ninth with a double into the left-field corner. After A.J. Pierzynski flied out, Crede ran his hitting streak to eight games with a roller down the third-base line.
Juan Uribe narrowed the spread to 5-4 with a flyout to the warning track in center that scored Rowand. But with Pablo Ozuna pinch-hitting for Tadahito Iguchi and not a home-run threat, the decision whether or when to run belonged to Harris.
The Sox did virtually nothing against Seattle starter Gil Meche
(1-0) outside of a three-run spurt in the third inning.
The loss continued the Sox’s early-season pattern for series–one they would like to continue. In each of their four series, they have won the first two games and dropped the third. “I don’t want sweeps,” Ozzie Guillen said. “I want to win series. I would take two out of three any day.”
