The clutch hitting that vaulted the White Sox to 57 first-half victories melted away over the weekend in the Bronx.
And it remains to be seen if they can revive that success when they open an important American League Central showdown at first-place Detroit on Tuesday.
“You never know,” slugger Paul Konerko said Sunday after the middle of the Sox’s lineup failed miserably with runners in scoring position in a 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees.
It marked an opponent’s first three-game sweep of the Sox since the Angels took three in a row Sept. 9-11, 2005.
“Sometimes you try to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and get going Tuesday,” Konerko said. “But when it comes to hitting or baseball in general, you can never say something is isolated. You have to go out and play.
“I’d say with the track records of the guys involved and the ones you’re referring to, I’ll take my chances with them. But you could do the job for 100 straight games and the ones you don’t, that’s the one that burns. That’s the way it is.”
Jim Thome, Konerko and Jermaine Dye went a combined 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position Sunday–a significant dropoff from their combined .381 average in that situation in the first half and the team’s .316 mark.
Their failures became more magnified and crucial in the seventh and ninth innings against relievers Mike Myers, Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera, who weaved through trouble to earn his 400th career save.
“You’re going to have those ups and downs,” said Thome, whose RBI double in the first represented the Sox’s only clutch hit from the threesome after 1-2 batters Scott Podsednik and Tadahito Iguchi reached base nine times but scored only twice. “You stay positive. It’s a long season. The season isn’t made on one series.”
When informed that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez predicted the wild-card team would come from the AL Central, Thome said, “We got to worry about ourselves and play day to day.”
The Sox have found that out by dropping five of six to the Yankees, and no loss was as frustrating as Sunday’s setback because of the blown opportunities. The Sox had several chances throughout the game, but the first inning set the tone as the first three batters reached safely, but the Sox scored only once.
“That changed the momentum,” manager Ozzie Guillen said.
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BY THE NUMBERS
2002 that’s the last time the Yankees swept the White Sox.
The Yankees are a season-high 17 games above .500 and now trail the White Sox by only three games in the race for the AL wild-card spot.
Sox starter Freddy Garcia has allowed a team-high 22 homers in 19 starts.
Sox starter Jon Garland will be working on 12 days’ rest between starts when he faces Detroit on Tuesday. He pitched in relief on July 8.
