White Sox continue to dominate Red Sox
Let's run some numbers on the White Sox this season and we'll see if you can figure out what doesn't add up.
The Sox are 1-7 against a decimated Twins team. They are 3-5 against the last-place Royals. They are 1-3 against the AL East's two flyweights, the Blue Jays and Orioles.
But ... following Friday night's 3-1 win over the Red Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, the White Sox are 4-0 against the team with the American League's best record.
And you wonder why general manager Kenny Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen have been banging their collective heads against the wall for the better part of 104 games trying to figure out what kind of team they've got?
The Red Sox (64-40) have been flying high all season, but they continued their nosedive when sharing the same field with the White Sox.
Friday night's loss — courtesy of another standout start from Gavin Floyd and A.J. Pierzynski's decisive 2-run homer in the seventh inning — leaves Boston with an 0-4 record against the White Sox this season.
Dating back to 2009, the White Sox have won 11 of 12 from the Red Sox.
“I don't have the answer, I really don't,” Guillen said after the White Sox (52-52) got back to the .500 mark while pulling one-half game behind the second-place Indians in the AL Central. “We play good against them obviously because we've beat them a few times. It's just that type of thing. That happens in the season, some people you can't beat. That's happened to us with a few teams.”
Over the course of the enigmatic season, Guillen has told struggling players like Adam Dunn and Alex Rios to forget what's happened and focus on what lies ahead.
That would be good advice for the White Sox as a whole as the stretch run approaches — forget you are 21-30 against teams with losing records and press forward.
Of course, the Sox should be good enough to beat everyone on the remaining schedule if they continue their dominant pitching.
Floyd went 7 innings against Boston and allowed just 1 run over 7 innings before Matt Thornton and Sergio Santos finished up.
Since the all-star break, White Sox pitchers have allowed 23 earned runs in 107⅔ innings, a 1.92 ERA. Floyd is 3-0 with a 0.81 ERA in 3 starts since the break.
“The past couple games I've just been trying to keep the same mindset and go into the game just trying to focus on each pitch and try to keep us in the game,” Floyd said.
Floyd did his job, again, and Pierzynski made it pay off with his 2-run homer off Red Sox starter Tim Wakefield.
Just four days shy of his 45th birthday, Wakefield held the White Sox to 2 hits before Pierzynski squared up a knuckleball with one on and no outs in the seventh inning.
“That was the best knuckleball I've seen him throw since I've watched him, and I've faced him a whole bunch,” Pierzynski said. “It was just dropping, every one, and moving left, right, up and down. People don't understand how hard it is to hit that. They look up and they see 65 mph and they don't really realize how hard it is to actually hit that thing.”
sgregor@dailyherald.com