The White Sox arrived home to an appreciative full house at U.S. Cellular Field and charges of being underachievers from general manager Ken Williams.
After starting an hour late against the Royals because of rain Monday night, the Sox helped soften Williams’ words with a harder-than-necessary 8-7 victory, moving them two games behind the AL Central-leading Tigers.
Although it was a frustratingly difficult game, Monday’s was more of what Williams has been expecting from his team, not the split on a West Coast trip to Seattle and Oakland.
“We lost two games we should have won, which [would have put] us a half-game out of first place,” he said. “We’ve thrown away a dozen games that way this year, which [has cost] us where I thought we would be — in first place and in a good position.
“But we deserve what we’ve got. I’m not happy with a lot of what I see. We’re underachievers.
“We can be a dangerous playoff team, but you first have to play well enough, play smart enough, play intense enough, to where you show you want to be in the playoffs.
“It can’t just be lip service. I don’t want to hear it anymore. Get the job done.”
Williams said he didn’t want his comments misconstrued and that he actually likes what he has put together, but he believes this homestand against Kansas City and Baltimore — the American League’s two worst teams — is the time to step it up.
“We’ve got a good group of guys here,” he said. “Nobody would be here if I didn’t feel that we had a good group that wanted it.
“But it’s mid-August, it’s time to turn it up a notch. If you’re going to show you’re a playoff team, now is about as good a time as any.
“We have a lot of talent out on that field. The fact of the matter is, we are simply not executing to the degree we need to execute to call ourselves playoff-worthy.”
While the execution was iffy, the Sox did pull out a victory thanks to Scott Podsednik’s eighth-inning single that scored Alex Rios from second base. Bobby Jenks pitched the ninth for his 25th save.
That came right after reliever Scott Linebrink blew a 7-4 lead with two walks and a homer to Mike Jacobs in the top of the eighth.
“After that inning, I didn’t see anybody with long faces,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “As soon as we got to the dugout, everybody was cheering.
“That’s a good sign about the ballclub.”
Sox starter Mark Buehrle, who remains 6-0 in his last 11 starts against the Royals at the Cell, was far from perfect as he struck out none and allowed nine hits and four runs in six innings. But he did leave with a one-run lead.
Jayson Nix accounted for the first two runs with a homer, his 10th in 38 hits this year.
Podsednik, still batting leadoff but serving as designated hitter in Jim Thome’s absence, tied the game in the fourth with an RBI double. An error tied the game again in the sixth before Alexei Ramirez’s sacrifice fly scored Rios.
Then A.J. Pierzynski gave Linebrink that three-run cushion with a homer in the seventh.
Linebrink has allowed nine walks, 15 hits and 10 runs in his last 12 games.
“The only way for him to get out of it is to keep putting him in,” Guillen said. “We cannot win this thing without the bullpen. They’ve got to bring the best they can for the last month and a half.”
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dvandyck@tribune.com
Up next
Tuesday vs. Royals, 7:11 p.m., CSN
