While the Cubs seem to be writing a book called “Men Acting Badly,” the White Sox are quietly going about the business of winning.
They beat the Cubs for the second day in a row and have won their last three series, including taking two of three games from the Dodgers, the best team in baseball.
Pretty good stuff, if you like your baseball without a $30 million right fielder who tends to go off like a geyser and a pitcher who too often loses his way by losing his cool.
Sox manager Ozzie Guillen had spent the past several weeks warning that if his team didn’t get its act together before the All-Star break, it risked being sold off in pieces by general manager Ken Williams.
From the standpoint of Sunday, the Sox look like a team that should be kept together.
You’d be as crazy as Carlos Zambrano to predict that they finally have turned things around, but there are plenty of good signs after their 6-0 victory over the Cubs. They have won 10 of their last 15 games to inch their way to within a game of .500 (37-38). In the last 16 games, Sox starters have a 2.66 earned-run average.
“I don’t know if we’ve turned the corner,” said right fielder Jermaine Dye, who homered Sunday. “That’s something we can’t worry about as players in this clubhouse. We have to go out there and prove we’re still in it and continue to play good baseball and not worry about what Kenny or the front-office people think about where this team is going. We have to be the ones who make the decisions for them.”
Guillen’s threat aside, there’s the very real question of what Williams would be able to do trade-wise if the Sox continued to tread water. Veteran first baseman Paul Konerko has the right to turn down any trade. Dye is the best player on the team, and if the Sox were smart, they’d keep him for next season’s option year, too. It’s fair to say Jim Thome wouldn’t be a hot commodity if Williams tried to move him.
By all appearances, the Sox have moved beyond worst-case scenarios anyway. They plan to have Carlos Quentin back from his foot injury after the All-Star break, but they can’t be sure what they’ll get from him, at least right away. He’ll offer another offensive boost if he gets close to 100 percent.
And then … ?
“Maybe we’ll go get somebody that will help us get to the playoffs,” Dye said. “We’re playing good baseball now, no doubt. Can we play better? Probably. We’re still not playing lights-out.”
Sometimes it looks like they’re playing with blindfolds. Over the last 11 games, they’ve had 17 errors. And yet they keep winning. How would you characterize Alexei Ramirez’s play at shortstop? Spotty? Yeah, like a Dalmatian. But he’s starting to warm up at the plate. He went 3-for-5 with a home run Sunday.
For those of you hoping Guillen will move Ramirez to the outfield, forget it.
“He’s going to be my shortstop as long as he wants to be,” Guillen said. “I’m going to stick with him.”
The Sox got nice contributions from Chris Getz and Dewayne Wise on Sunday. John Danks was the anti-Zambrano, calmly throwing seven scoreless innings. And whoever has invaded Scott Podsednik’s body in the leadoff spot is doing a wonderful job.
The Sox go on the road for series against Cleveland and Kansas City, then come home to face the Indians again. These are beatable teams, and Williams should be able to put away his payroll scalpel.
But Guillen isn’t willing to say his players have staved off Trader Kenny.
“They’ve got to show me better,” he said. “Every time I feel that way, my heart has been broken, big time. I’ve got to take it one day at a time and try to move on real sneaky and quiet and see where we are at the end of September.
“We’re close to getting there, but I don’t want to think about that yet because I don’t want to have a broken heart.”
The Sox were able to take advantage of Zambrano’s lack of emotional control Sunday. Guillen acknowledged that the Cubs’ excitable pitcher started to unravel when a bad pitch in the sixth allowed Getz to steal home. And then Zambrano, in all his fury, plunked Wise, the next batter. Stupid.
But before the Sox start to feel superior in terms of handling their emotions, bear in mind that they have a manager who has been known to do crazy things now and then. There is, as they say, still a lot of season left.
That manager has his team playing well. The manager on the other side of town looks befuddled by what he’s seeing. Who knew?
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rmorrissey@tribune.com
