You remember them, virtually unhittable and almost unscored on.
They are back again, albeit against the Royals and Twins, with Freddy Garcia completing the cycle with a 9-2 victory over Minnesota on Saturday night to give the Sox seven straight triumphs and 11 in their last 12 games.
The five combined over five games to go 5-0 with four runs allowed in 37 innings for a 0.97 ERA.
“It’s contagious, one feeds off the other,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “It’s fun to see them compete against each other to see who is better. It’s a real clean rivalry with those guys.”
Garcia, who has struggled since his return from this spring’s World Baseball Classic, threw 62/3 innings and allowed two runs. His performance comes after:
? Jose Contreras’ no runs in seven innings against Kansas City on Monday
? Jon Garland’s one run in 7-1/3 innings against the Royals on Tuesday
? Javier Vazquez’s no runs in eight innings against Kansas City on Wednesday
? Mark Buehrle’s one run in eight innings against Minnesota on Friday.
With help from a flawless bullpen, the combined two runs were the fewest in a four-game stretch for Sox pitchers since 1973. Add in Garcia’s effort Saturday and ?
“That’s the way I expect them to be,” said Guillen, who admits to being extra careful with his starters’ pitch counts this season.
“Last year we played another month of baseball,” he said of the playoffs. “Watching the pitch counts gives us a chance to keep them fresh all the way to the end. If you go 115-120 [pitches] every day, in the end it will [cost] you. You can’t overdo it.”
Garcia’s job Saturday was made easier by an offense chauffeured by Jermaine Dye, who had a first-inning three-run homer off Brad Radke and a run-scoring double, much to the delight of 38,995 fans, the third sellout at U.S. Cellular this season.
“I don’t know what it is year-to-year. I’m going out with the same game plan,” Dye said. “I’m usually a slow starter. I’ve only had hot starts maybe twice in my career. Right now our offense is rolling and we’re feeding off everybody else.”
Dye has 13 RBIs in his last nine games and 10 RBIs in the eight games on this homestand.
Said Guillen: “Nobody talks about him, but he has been great for us with two outs.”
And then there’s Jim Thome, who put the icing on the victory with a two-run eighth-inning homer, his ninth in the month of April. That ties him with Frank Thomas for the most-ever for the Sox in the first month?and there are still seven games left.
Thome also extended his record season-opening streak for scoring at least one run to 17 games and has helped take the pressure off Paul Konerko. But so has the rest of the lineup.
“It has been a different guy every day,” Guillen said. “[Konerko] doesn’t have to carry the team four or five months. Right now everybody is contributing.”
Of course, it doesn’t take much contribution when the starters are throwing zeroes.
dvandyck@tribune.com
