Sox' offense gets off to nice start
CLEVELAND -- White Sox hitting coach Greg Walker is always available to talk, always accommodating.
But Walker grew tired of being asked about the Sox' 2007 offense, which was the worst in baseball. He was eager for the new season to start, and he had a feeling newcomers Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera were going to bring some needed life to the top of the order.
In Monday's 10-8 loss to the Indians in the season opener, Swisher was 2-for-4 with a walk and 2 runs scoring batting out of the leadoff spot. If Jerry Owens comes off the disabled list and returns to batting first, Swisher is likely to drop to No. 6 or 7 in the lineup.
Cabrera, locked in as the Sox' No. 2 hitter, singled, walked and scored 2 runs in his debut.
"Swish and Orlando really bring a lot,'' Walker said. "They work the counts and battle, and that's something we were missing last year.''
The heart of the Sox' order -- Jim Thome, Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye -- combined for just 264 RBI last season. In 2006, the trio drove in 342 runs.
"We had a lot of energy,'' said Thome, who hit 2 homers and drove in 4 runs in Monday's opener. "Bringing in Cabrera and Swisher plays a big part to that. We are going to win a lot of games if we play like that.''
Cabrera and Swisher are good bets to have big years,, and the rest of the Sox' offense has to bounce back from a disappointing 2007.
"We know we can hit,'' Konerko said. "We've got guys in this lineup that have hit all their lives in the major leagues, so we shouldn't be surprised by it. It's nice to get in good habits of scoring runs.
"The snowball can do down the hill either way. We saw that last year where a bunch of good hitters go bad. Well, hopefully we can go good and it gets rolling the other way and it comes easier.''
What's the difference? Javier Vazquez starts against Cleveland tonight, and the veteran right-hander will try to pick up where he left off last year (15-8, 3.74 ERA).
In 2006, Vazquez's first year with the Sox, the 31-year-old righty was 11-12 with a 4.84 ERA.
White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper blames the so-so showing on the World Baseball Classic. Vazquez pitched for his native Puerto Rico in the inaugural spring tournament and missed two weeks of training camp.
"He wasn't in spring training much,'' Cooper said. "Usually, with the veterans, I ask them what they like to do and we work off of that. We didn't get a chance to do that with Javy. He was doing OK (in 2006), and then it went bad.''
Under pressure: Juan Uribe is the White Sox' No. 1 second baseman, but manager Ozzie Guillen said he won't hesitate to call on Pablo Ozuna or Alexei Ramirez if Uribe struggles at the plate again.
"Something we have that we haven't had in the past, we have people that can replace people,'' Guillen said. "If you don't play the game the way we think you should be playing it, we will do something about it. It's all about performance. When you don't play well, we have a lot of people out there that can fill your role.''
Uribe struck out three straight times on Monday before doubling in the eighth inning. The Sox staged a rally in the ninth inning and Carlos Quentin was going to pinch hit for Uribe before Joe Crede popped out to end the game.