The Sports Xchange
MLB Team Report – Chicago White Sox – INSIDE PITCH
Adam Dunn doesn’t want to start making the 2011 comparisons, especially because the season was such a nightmare for him, but the Sox designated hitter/first baseman knows that the comparisons are already being made.
In his first season with the Sox, Dunn was historically bad, hitting .159 with 177 strikeouts and just 11 home runs. This season, through the first 31 games, he’s hitting .142 with 42 strikeouts and six homers, including an 0-for-3 outing in Friday’s 7-5 loss to the Angels. In his bounceback season last year, Dunn hit .204 with 41 homers, but fanned 222 times, so while it was better, it still wasn’t anything to write home about.
What is bothering Dunn is that he feels much better at the plate than the numbers show. That wasn’t the case in ’11, when he admittedly felt bad at the plate and his at-bats reflected that.
“I wish I could go, ‘That’s the reason,’ ” Dunn said, in trying to pinpoint the problem so far in 2013. “There is no reason. That’s the very, very frustrating part of it. I want to find something.”
Hitting coach Jeff Manto has been asked numerous times about Dunn already this season, and indicated that his “hands are working fine.” The issue is timing, and Manto believes the slugger is closer to finding it than moving further away.
“He’s taking a lot of good swings; he’s getting pitches to hit right now; he’s just missing them,” Manto said. “When you see that, you kind of get encouraged — and I know the numbers are the numbers, and I can’t escape that — but from the hitting side and watching, he’s just about ready to turn it on. I know it sounds crazy, watching, but I really do think he’s close. I really do.”
“I feel like it’s not just me,” Dunn said. “The whole team, offensively, is in a funk. We got nobody — I mean, nobody — hitting. It’s gotta turn. It can’t be like this.”
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MLB Team Report – Chicago White Sox – NOTES, QUOTES
RECORD: 14-19
STREAK: Lost one
PAST 10 GAMES: 4-6
NEXT: Angels (Jerome Williams 1-1, 3.16) at White Sox (Jose Quintana 2-0, 3.86)
PLAYER NOTES:
–LF Dayan Viciedo was reinstated from the 15-day disabled list prior to Friday night’s home game against the Los Angeles Angels. Viciedo started in left field and went 1-for-3 with a two-run double in Chicago’s 7-5 loss at U.S. Cellular Field. Prior to the game, the 5-foot-11, 230-pounder said he felt 100 percent healed from the left oblique strain that sidelined him April 18 in Toronto. Viciedo started four games with Triple-A Charlotte on a rehab assignment prior to rejoining the White Sox. He was just starting to get hot at the plate in the four games before his injury occurred, but said it hasn’t forced him to change his swing or offensive approach.
“I’m going to go little by little and not put too much pressure on myself,” Viciedo said through an interpreter. “This is a team thing. I’m going to go day-by-day and try to do what I know how to do. There’s no pressure. My swing hasn’t changed at all.”
–LHP Jose Quintana will get the ball first for the White Sox on Saturday night looking for his third win of the season in his seventh start and third at home. After throwing a career-high 18 2/3 scoreless innings April 12-24, Quintana is 1-0 with a 5.40 ERA and opponents are hitting .290 off him. Quintana didn’t get a decision in his previous start May 5 in Kansas City, after yielding three runs in five innings. He retired 13 straight hitters before allowing a leadoff single to start the fifth. Quintana lost his only career start against the Angels last September at Angel Stadium, giving up four runs (one earned) on six hits through five innings. He also walked a career-high five batters in that game.
–2B Gordon Beckham took 100 swings off a tee in the next step of his recovery from a bone fracture in his left hand that required surgery to correct. Beckham, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list on April 12 (retroactive to April 10), estimates that he’s about two weeks away from rejoining the White Sox lineup. Beckham doesn’t plan to hit off live pitching before being sent out on a minor league rehab assignment that will likely last four or five games.
“I’ve got to build it back up a little bit, but first day it’s pretty encouraging,” Beckham said, prior to Chicago’s loss to the Angels on Friday night at U.S. Cellular Field. “I was pretty encouraged by the way I saw the ball, the way the ball was coming off the bat. That’s important and a lot of balls had good trajectory, too. There’s a lot to like about the first day, I guess.”
Beckham, who was off to a hot start offensively through the season’s first seven games, said he’s itching to get back into the lineup.
“I’m bored,” he said. “I’m ready to go. If I have to take more swings to get there quicker, I’m going to do it. It’s a good start.”
–CF Alejandro De Aza hit his third leadoff home run of the season and seventh of his career for the White Sox in the bottom of the first inning Friday night at U.S. Cellular Field. It was the second game in a row De Aza went deep in Chicago’s first at-bat, after leading off a 6-3 win against the New York Mets on Wednesday at Citi Field. Kenny Lofton was the last White Sox player to hit leadoff homers in back-to-back games, doing it July 18-19 of 2002.
–RHP Dylan Axelrod dropped to 0-3 and allowed six runs in six innings of work for the White Sox on Friday night in a 7-5 loss to the Angels. The six runs allowed, five earned, were a season high for Axelrod, who had allowed three or less in five of his previous six starts.
–RHP Jesse Crain came into Friday night’s game against the Angels with 12 straight scoreless outings, striking out 15 hitters over 10 1/3 innings. Crain hadn’t allowed an earned run in 7 1/3 innings at U.S. Cellular Field and was holding right-handed hitters to a .200 average (6-for-31). Crain also has nine holds already, with four coming on the White Sox’s most recent road trip.
–OF Jordan Danks was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte on Friday afternoon to make room for LF Dayan Viciedo’s return to the White Sox lineup from the 15-day disabled list. Danks appeared in nine games and made four starts with Chicago this season, going 3-for-15 (.200) with a game-winning home run on May 6 at Kansas City.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “It’s getting better as far as attention to detail, but the small things, I think, are very important and they have to understand that I think it’s very important.” — Manager Robin Ventura, tiring of his team’s habit of poor fielding this season.
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MLB Team Report – Chicago White Sox – ROSTER REPORT
MEDICAL WATCH:
–LF Dayan Viciedo (strained left oblique) was injured April 18 and went on the 15-day disabled list April 19. He began a rehab assignment May 8. He was activated on May 10.
–2B Gordon Beckham (fractured left hamate bone) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to April 10. He had surgery April 16. As of April 22, he couldn’t grip a bat or put on a glove. The best-case scenario is the Sox will have him back by late June. Beckham, however, thinks it could be mid-June. He did have his stitches out and started swinging a bat the week of April 29. He took 100 swings off a tee May 10.
–LHP Leyson Septimo (left shoulder strain) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 22. He was sent on a rehab assignment to Charlotte on April 26. Septimo was transferred from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day DL on April 29.
–LHP John Danks (left shoulder surgery in August 2012) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 22. He made one minor league rehab start for Double-A Birmingham on May 2 and a second start May 7. He likely will make his next rehab start May 12 for Triple-A Charlotte.
–RHP Gavin Floyd (Tommy John surgery in May 2013) went on the 15-day disabled list April 28, and he was transferred to the 60-day DL on May 7 after season-ending surgery. He is out for the season.
–INF Angel Sanchez (back strain) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to April 10, with the injury expected not to be serious. He said in late April that there was improvement, but there was still no timetable for his return.
ROTATION:
LHP Chris Sale
RHP Jake Peavy
LHP Jose Quintana
RHP Dylan Axelrod
LHP Hector Santiago
BULLPEN:
RHP Addison Reed (closer)
RHP Nate Jones
RHP Jesse Crain
LHP Matt Thornton
RHP Matt Lindstrom
LHP Donnie Veal
RHP Deunte Heath
CATCHERS:
Tyler Flowers
Hector Gimenez
INFIELDERS:
1B Paul Konerko
2B Jeff Keppinger
SS Alexei Ramirez
3B Conor Gillaspie
DH Adam Dunn
INF Tyler Greene
OUTFIELDERS:
LF Dayan Viciedo
CF Alejandro De Aza
RF Alex Rios
OF Dewayne Wise
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