Final game of the weeklong road trip and the White Sox are threatening in the first inning. Tim Raines opens with a single and is bunted to second. Frank Thomas, leading the league in runs, total bases, extra-base hits, walks and slugging and reach percentage, steps in.
Superman in baseball bloomers.
Oops, Big Frank taps a two-hopper to shortstop Cal Ripken, who throws him out on a routine play.
And a fan in the seats below the press box here at Camden Yards shouts:
“I don’t believe it!”
I couldn’t, either. Julio Franco strikes out, lunging, and Raines is stranded.
The Sox are on the prowl again in the second. Robin Ventura walks and Warren Newson, the Deacon, singles to right. Two men on and no outs. Lance Johnson is next. He has already had three triples on the trip, and it’s a good time for No. 4. For a split second, it looks like another triple. A line shot down the first-base line. But Rafael Palmeiro is holding Newson at first and makes a stabbing catch, and Ventura is doubled off second.
Thomas is up again in the third. Raines and Joey Cora are on with singles. No outs. But the Big Hurt bounces to Ripken and into a double play and the same fan yells, “I can’t believe it!”
And suddenly I remember what Frank said before the game:
“It’s still early. We’ve played well in our first 51 games. But we still haven’t hit the groove we want to be in.”
Like most professional ballplayers, Thomas is cautious. Still, the White Sox are in a good groove. Two out of three against the Yankees in New York and two in a row here against the Orioles.
“Beautiful trip because we’ve played great baseball,” observed right-fielder Darrin Jackson during the pregame practice. “We’re winning the close ones. Couldn’t be any better. We’ve been battling, staying close, and then we explode.”
But it was the Orioles who exploded Sunday. Consecutive fifth-inning home runs by Palmeiro and Harold Baines off Alex Fernandez lifted the Birds to within one run of a tie. The Orioles followed with a four-run burst off relievers Dennis Cook and Dane Johnson in the seventh for an 8-5 lead. The Baltimore bullpen shut down the Sox thereafter.
More Top Picks Boosted Mini S
And so the Sox were 4-2, not 5-1, on the trip.
“We would have liked to win today, but we’re happy to go home 4-2,” said manager Gene Lamont.
Four wins in six games translates into a .667 winning percentage, good enough to win a flag.
The Sox are now playing at a .615 gait, 32 wins against 20 losses, and made believers here out of a couple of old pros, Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer and field announcer Rex Barney, a onetime pitcher who has been around the big leagues for more than a half-century.
“They’re very strong,” said Palmer. “The best team in the league.”
“Break up the White Sox,” Barney said on more than one occasion. “The middle of their lineup, that’s Murderers’ Row.”
The 3-4-5 array of Thomas, Franco and Ventura has batted .358 in the 32 victories and, together, have produced an average of 3.6 runs per game.
That’s as good as you can get.