Konehead Krusher!

(April 25)

Short Take:  Losing streak is over (barely)

Remember Jeff Abbott pulling out a Sox victory last May against the Twins with a ninth inning homerun?  Wednesday night Paul Konerko did a fine impersonation of that feat with his own game-winning homerun.  After being held scoreless for ten innings, the White Sox put one across the plate to win 2-1 over Oakland in eleven innings.

It was ugly, but we'll take it.  The four-game losing streak is over!

The beauty of the ending was quite a contrast to the rest of the game.  Konerko's dinger was his first hit of the night, coming off ex-Sox submariner Chad Bradford.  Oh, that felt good, Sox Fans!

Konerko entered the game hitting .381 earning the clean up spot in Jerry Manuel's revised line up.  Slumping Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez both sat.  Harold Baines got the #3 spot but went hitless in four at-bats with one walk.  Ray Durham managed two walks plus a hit to reach base 3 in 5 plate appearances in the leadoff spot.  Jerry Manuel saw fit to let Jose Valentin hit #2 and was rewarded with a first inning homerun.  It would be hours before the Sox would score again.

The anemic Sox should have been buried but starter David Wells wouldn't let his teammates blow this game.  He gave up one dinger in the second inning and that was it, cruising nine full innings of five-hit baseball.  

Given that neither of these teams has shown any ability to play quality ball, it was hardly a surprise the next eight innings were a festival of boredom and brainless baseball. It's hard to believe these guys get paid for making the mistakes committed in this game.  Josh Paul leads off the sixth inning with a double and then promptly gets picked off secondbase with no outs and the top of the Sox order at-bat.  Of course Durham got an infield single and Valentin hit a deep flyball which certainly would have been an rbi sacrifice-fly--if Paul hadn't been sitting in the dugout!

The Sox also ruined a terrific scoring opportunity in the eighth inning when Harold Baines swung and missed at strike three to end the inning with Jose Valentin on thirdbase.  

Big Frank and Maggs each made outs in pinch-hitting duty.  Why can't Manuel give Royce Clayton pinch-hitting duty?  After yesterday's big two-hit performance, he was back to 0 for 3 today with a strikeout.  His batting average droops to .135.  When can we officially declare his average "microscopic"?

Hey, it's a win.  We'll take it!