Core Meltdown!

(July 6)

Short Take:  When will it end?

The roof caved in on the Sox in the eighth inning of Friday night's game at Comiskey, but this lifeless effort started much earlier.  There was almost a sense of inevitability to the whole three hour, twenty minute mess.  The brain-dead White Sox lose in ugly fashion to the hapless Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-6.  If they can't play better than this, declare Saturday's game a forfeit and refund everyone's money.

Somewhere inside the Chairman's executive suite, there is laughter.

It was beyond pathetic, and nearly everyone had a hand contributing to this disaster.  The obvious goat is Bob Howry for turning a one-run lead (hard earned off the bat of Carlos Lee) into a three-run deficit.  Amazingly, he did it in just 0.2 innings work.  It was yeoman-like service from yet another of the "centerpiece" players from Jerry Reinsdorf's "right" White Flag trade.

Could Roberto Hernandez have done any worse?

Fellow White Flagger Keith Foulke skated without being charged with an earned run, but three of the runs batted in came off Foulke's pitches.  He didn't feel nearly as bad as fellow White Flagger Ken Vining who got a one-way ticket back to Charlotte.  Far away from this disaster, White Flagger Lorenzo Barcelo is recovering from having his arm cut open again while Mike Caruso is mows lawns and refills the Slurpee machine somewhere in Florida.  Oh yeah, Mr. Reinsdorf, we Sox Fans were loving your "right" White Flag trade tonight. 

Ray Durham was charged with an error, which he'll gladly accept because he clearly deserved two of them--the second on a lazy effort fielding a grounder allowing the hitter to reach base while the Pirates scored a runner from third.

Royce Clayton laughed up his sleeve when the scorekeeper charged Sandy Alomar with an error after his perfect peg to second base was mis-fielded by the imbecile shortstop, rolling into center field.  He raised his batting average with a 1 for 4 performance including the most pathetic late-swing, off the end of the bat nubber to ever reach the outfield grass.  His batting average might reach .200 after all.

Paul Konerko had the two most invisible singles of the night.  His big fat strikeout on four pitches during the abbreviated seventh inning rally stuck out like a sore thumb.  Magglio Ordonez was even worse, a 1 for 5 performance leaving five runners on base.  He'll make a fine representative for the 2001 White Sox at this year's all-star game.

And ol' sleepy-head Jerry Manuel sat motionless as Royce Clayton was allowed to bat for himself in the eighth inning with Sox down four runs.  Meanwhile Tony Graffanino (who doubled in pinch hitting duty just last night) is left out of the game.  If he can't be used in this situation, why waste a roster spot on him?

Nobody was told to "go" home by the third base coach when he really meant "fake", so I guess we chalk up this evening's effort as an improvement by the White Sox brain trust. 

The all-star break can't get here quick enough.  That is all Jerry's players seem focused on.  Maybe that is all Jerry is focused on, too?