It was an appropriate conclusion to a rather formless road trip for the White Sox, who are both dangerous and endangered.
On a shiny Sunday afternoon when participating arson squads yielded nine home runs at Fenway Park, the Red Sox won 9-8 on three groundballs in the ninth inning off Roberto Hernandez, the 25th Chicago pitcher employed during a six-game goodwill tour to Baltimore and Boston.
And don’t forget: Alex Fernandez, the White Sox’s horse, started and actually finished one all by himself against the Orioles. When manager Terry Bevington retires, they should not present him with a rocking chair or a gold watch, but an authentic major-league mound for his den.
The White Sox, who feel home alone because of dreadful fan support, left Comiskey Park a week ago leading this wild and crazy wild-card derby by one game. They imagined that a road trip before large audiences would energize them, but 2-4 in the East doesn’t cut it.
With the American League champion Cleveland Indians visiting Chicago on Monday night–tickets available, name your row–the White Sox are 2 1/2 lengths behind Baltimore. That means they must pick up three games on the Orioles over the next 12 or perish.
“Same old stuff,” groused Tony Phillips. “We lose games we should win. Same old stuff all season.”
Except, of course, when you blow more leads in September than the Los Angeles Police Department, the trend tends to become magnified, even if the South Side of Chicago isn’t quite living and dying with White Sox fortunes.
Take Sunday’s seventh inning, please. The White Sox were up 8-6 after five solo homers, including three rockets launched by Frank Thomas. Mo Vaughn had singled of the wall, and on came Bill Simas. His first offering was raw meat, and John Valentin killed it for his second homer of the day, or second since mid-July.
“I wanted to give him a fastball, away,” Simas said. “Instead, it was right down the middle. I’d like to have it back, yeah. But did I make a bad pitch because of inexperience? I don’t think so. If a guy who’s been around 10 years does that, it’s a bad pitch. If a guy who hasn’t been around does that, it’s inexperience.”
When management repairs for the winter and calculates all those squandered saves, that topic will have to be addressed. The bullpen besides Hernandez is largely green, and new arms don’t necessarily grow into consistent arms. Mike Pazik, the pitching coach, candidly admits it’s pretty much a coin flip when he picks up the phone and dials 911.
Meanwhile, as Simas points out, you can’t learn what pitching in a pennant race is all about unless you do so at a distance of 60 feet 6 inches. It’s a riddle wrapped in an enigma, which might explain why Bevington tapped Hernandez for the 17th time with his team either tied or behind. When Roberto retires, his gift of choice might be a sling.
The starters aren’t blameless, mind you. Their earned-run average is higher than the bullpen’s, and the White Sox don’t have a No. 5 guy because nobody else does. Marvin Freeman, who threw 47 pitches Saturday after three weeks in mothballs, earned another chance, coming soon.
When the White Sox weren’t doing the home run trot Sunday, they were trying to help the Red Sox, who are in even bigger trouble. Second inning, with Ray Durham on second, he was ambushed at third on a fielder’s-choice groundball in front of him.
Then, in the ninth, with left-handed Mike Greenwell batting, Robin Ventura shaded toward the third-base line to protect against an extra-base hit that is a virtual impossibility, given Fenway’s contour. Greenwell singled through you know where, and thus began the rally.
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“We’d do the same thing again,” said Bevington, whose squad scored 26 runs in Boston and won one game. And the White Sox are considered to be blessed with pitching. Can’t wait for expansion, can you?