Twins put the lumber to Humber
White Sox starter Phil Humber had been rolling against nearly every opponent he faced this season.
Of course, the rags-to-riches pitcher didn’t face the dreaded Twins until Thursday night at U.S. Cellular Field.
You can pretty much guess the rest.
As the Sox lost their eight straight to Minnesota — and 27th in the last 33 games — Humber easily had his worst outing of the year.
The right-hander lasted just 3⅔ innings and allowed 6 runs on 11 hits. Humber had pitched at least 6 innings in his last 12 starts and was 6-1 with a 2.52 ERA in his last 10.
“Yeah, it was not a whole lot of fun out there,” Humber said. “I just tried to make the pitches I needed to make, and even when I did execute my pitches it seemed like they were putting the barrel on the ball. It was just a tough one.”
The Twins always seem to do everything right against the White Sox, and that was true again Thursday.
“They executed everything they had to execute early in the game,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “Everything. They know how to play the game and they play the game right. The best bullet they have is execution and they don’t miss much.”
The Twins jumped on Humber right away, scoring a run in the first inning and 2 more in the second before breaking it open with a 3-run fourth.
“I’ve definitely had games where I didn’t have good stuff, but today I felt like I had pretty decent stuff,” Humber said after his ERA jumped from 2.69 to 3.10. “I just wasn’t commanding the baseball very well. When you’re not doing that against a team that’s selective when they need to be and aggressive then they need to be, they’re a good team.
“They’re always in the hunt for a reason. They’ll give you a tough at-bat pretty much up and down the lineup. When you’re not on your game you’re going to have a tough night.”
Santiago shines again:Phil Humber was off Thursday, but rookie relief pitcher Hector Santiago continued to make a huge impression.
Santiago pitched 1 scoreless inning against the Royals Wednesday in his major-league debut and followed up with 4#8531; scoreless innings against the Twins.
The left-hander allowed only 1 hit against Minnesota.
#147;This kid has a chance to be a good one,#148; manager Ozzie Guillen said. #147;He has some heart and he#146;s not afraid. The No. 1 thing he has so far is throwing strikes. When you throw strikes, you always are going to have a chance in the big leagues.#148;
Lineup change:Instead of batting third again Thursday, Adam Dunn dropped down to the cleanup spot. Paul Konerko moved from cleanup to No. 3.
Why the switch?
#147;There#146;s only reason,#148; manager Ozzie Guillen said. #147;I#146;m tired to see Paul Konerko leading off in the second inning. Tired.#148;
In other words, Guillen was tired of seeing Dunn (.163) strike out to end the first inning.