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Sox in trouble after loss to Angels
With any luck, the White Sox will still be in first place Monday night when they return to U.S. Cellular Field for their final homestand of the season.
Keeping it more real, the Sox are likely to come back to the South Side looking up at the Tigers.
The White Sox are in big trouble after dropping their fourth straight game — this one a 4-2 decision to the Angels on Saturday night at Anaheim, Calif.
Detroit, meanwhile, beat Minnesota 8-0 at Comerica Park and now sits just one-half game behind the Sox in the AL Central.
There is even more bad news.
Jared Weaver pitches for Los Angeles against the White Sox today in the series finale. Not only is the right-hander 18-4 with a 2.79 ERA this season — good enough for strong Cy Young Award consideration — Weaver is a lifetime 6-2 with a 1.61 ERA against the Sox.
Considering they've scored just 7 runs during their losing streak, the White Sox figure to go down pretty easily against Weaver.
And if the Tigers sweep the Twins in a doubleheader today, they would be on top of the division by 1 game with 10 to play.
It's not looking too good, without a doubt, and the Sox are going to have to get the bats going again when they return home for three games against the Indians and four against the Rays before closing the regular season next week with three games at Cleveland.
Manager Robin Ventura, who was ejected in the fourth inning for arguing a balk call, tried to turn down any heat the White Sox might be feeling.
“We'd rather be doing this than trying to ruin somebody's postseason chances,” Ventura told reporters. “This is baseball. Guys should be having fun doing it. There's stress and stuff like that and you want to win games, but we'd rather be doing this.”
After the Angels sent nine hitters to the plate in the first inning and scored 4 runs (1 earned) against White Sox starter Jose Quintana, this one figured to be a blowout.
Quintana, who made a costly fielding error in the first, somehow regained his composure and made it through 5 innings with no further damage despite allowing 6 hits and 5 walks.
Los Angeles right-hander Dan Haren, who was 0-3 with an 8.77 ERA in his last 3 home starts, silenced the Sox' lineup much like Ervin Santana did on Friday night.
Paul Konerko hit a solo home run in the second inning, but the White Sox again struggled with runners in scoring position, going 0-for-7. Over their last 16 games, they are batting .181 (25-for-138) with RISP.
In the second inning, the Sox had runners on first and third with two outs, but Adam Dunn struck out. Dunn (0-for-4, 3 strikeouts) has picked a bad time to go back into a deep freeze. He is 0-for-8 with 6 strikeouts in the series.
In the fifth inning, Alexei Ramirez singled with one out and stole second, but Gordon Beckham flied out and Alejandro De Aza popped out.
Kevin Youkilis led off the sixth with a walk, but Dunn grounded into a double play.
The Sox did score a run in the seventh inning after Alex Rios led off with a single and A.J. Pierzynski moved him to third base with a double, but Dewayne Wise's RBI groundout was the extent of the damage.
sgregor@dailyherald.com
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