OAKLAND 4, WHITE SOX 0
Jermaine Dye extended his hitting streak to 11 games, and Darin Erstad’s first-inning single pushed his to 10.
But those were the White Sox’s lone highlights Wednesday night as unheralded Chad Gaudin stopped their recent offensive momentum cold in a 4-0 loss at U.S. Cellular Field.
“He didn’t throw anything in the middle of the plate, but he didn’t walk anybody,” Sox first baseman Paul Konerko said. “That sums it up.”
Gaudin’s performance was impressive against a Sox offense that believed it had remedied its struggles after scoring 34 runs in its last four games.
“We weren’t laying off his high fastball,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “He kept the ball high and in, and we couldn’t lay off all night on that pitch.”
The Sox didn’t advance a runner as far as second base until A.J. Pierzynski and Juan Uribe hit consecutive singles with one out in the eighth. Erstad was erased on a double play to end the first inning, and Dye was thrown out easily trying to stretch a single into a double for the first out of the second.
SOX HITS
Manager Ozzie Guillen nearly broke out in a rash when asked if he was looking forward to the Cubs series June 22-24. “I hope we play in Mexico or somewhere, Japan, so I don’t have to deal with [the attention],” Guillen said. “Swear to God. Next year we’re going to play the opening Cubs-White Sox series in Japan. [Commissioner] Bud Selig has a lot of money to fly all your guys back there. It’d be nice. Mexico or Japan. It’d be a nice experience. Venezuela? I don’t know if MLB is going to let that happen. It’s good to play in Venezuela. But the thing is, half my family wants to go there, and my house is going to be a mess. No. We go to Mexico, China, somewhere. Make it better. Australia.”
