There’s nothing wrong with Gordon Beckham getting a turn in the starring role.
He looks the part. He is experienced in it beyond his years. He has maybe 15 seasons to enjoy it in Chicago or, if the White Sox ever let him get away, around the big leagues. But the Sox player who really deserved it during a long Saturday afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field was Scott Podsednik, who at 33 should lease by the month.
Beckham’s first-pitch, bottom-of-the-ninth single off Jose Ascanio delivered the winning run in the White Sox’s 8-7 victory that evened the City Series at two games apiece and ended another Cubs winning streak before it could get started. But the at-bat of the day was an inning earlier when Podsednik faced Carlos Marmol.
Podsednik already had a four-hit day, including a home run off Ryan Dempster that sailed into the first row of the right-field bleachers. He was as dirty as the young Huck Finn when he stepped into the box, the red dirt of the infield covering the No. 22 on the front of his black jersey.
In the end, the at-bat was an anticlimax as Podsednik flied out to leave the tying run on second base. But the guy who won Game 2 of the 2005 World Series delivered a nine-pitch battle, shooting foul balls down both sides of the field.
It set the tone for Alexei Ramirez’s game-tying single off Marmol, which gave Beckham the chance to be a walk-off hero.
“This was a great, great game for the city of Chicago,” said Jim Thome, who joined A.J. Pierzynski in nearly smothering Beckham after his liner into the right-center-field gap. “Both teams battled. When both teams needed to get a hit, they did. We were fortunate to get the last one.”
Before Beckham’s game-winner, manager Ozzie Guillen had suffered through three more infield errors (not counting a forced mental mistake by Ramirez) and Mark Buehrle’s first balk since 2006, when he and Paul Konerko got crossed up. The Sox had enough hitting to get past those mistakes against the Cubs’ thin bullpen, but Guillen is justifiably unsettled by how his team is playing.
“We still make a lot of mistakes,” Guillen said. “Defensively we have to be a little bit better to help our pitching staff.”
I will admit it’s tempting to bury the White Sox. They are missing discarded infielders Orlando Cabrera, Joe Crede and Juan Uribe and already have allowed 43 unearned runs. That’s only 10 fewer than they gave away in 2005 with Crede, Uribe and Tadahito Iguchi in the infield. But then I see what Podsednik is doing in place of Carlos Quentin in left field and put down the shovel.
Podsednik, released by Colorado in spring training, is no one’s idea of an American League left fielder. He drove in 25 runs in 129 games in ’05, making his 20 RBIs in 50 games this season all the more remarkable. But he was very much a significant player on the World Series champ.
Podsednik’s lack of power and run production was a non-issue that season, both because of the game-changing speed he showed in the first half of that season and the Sox’s lockdown pitching and defense throughout the year. This is a different team, depending on Buehrle to keep it close to .500.
It is 11-4 in Buehrle’s starts and 25-34 behind everyone else. Ramirez may be playing his way to center field, as he’s on pace for a 22-error season (with the recent trend suggesting 25-30 is in the picture), and Beckham could move from third to short just as quickly as he went the other way.
Ramirez was given two errors Saturday, not including arguably his biggest mistake. He allowed Ryan Freel to score from third after he fielded an eighth-inning grounder from Andres Blanco.
Guillen had played the infield in, but Ramirez failed to look Freel back to third base, and the Cubs took a 7-6 lead. It was the kind of mistake that almost always dooms a team when it is going nowhere.
This one didn’t. Does that tell us anything?
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progers@tribune.com
Sound effects from the Cell
Listen to Gordon Beckham talk about his game-winning hit and hear both managers’ takes on the action at chicagotribune.com/sports
