Sox still have confidence in MacDougal

CLEVELAND -- There's no doubt reliever Mike MacDougal is a source of great frustration for White Sox fans.

But rest assured the team is standing behind the embattled right-hander as he attempts to locate his confidence, and find confidence in his location.

"Our belief in him, our confidence in him, has not wavered,'' pitching coach Don Cooper said Thursday. "We have invested a lot of time in him, and we know what he can do.

"Now, there comes a time when players have to return that love. We have patience and we have confidence in him, but … we have to see some of that consistency and confidence from him.''

MacDougal remains an enigma, a major-leaguer with world-class stuff, and sometimes the inability to throw strikes. The Sox don't need him to be an all-star like he was in Kansas City, but they do need him to find consistent control.

"We want him to be as good as he can be so that he can be a viable choice for the seventh or eighth inning, because that makes our bullpen better and our team better,'' Cooper said. "He needs to master two pitches and throw them to the glove for strikes. I believe he can do that.''

MacDougal ended up pitching 2 scoreless innings after a very rough start Wednesday, which Guillen went out of his way to mention Thursday.

"That was huge for us because (Nick) Masset pitched a lot (Monday) and I didn't have to use (Octavio) Dotel or (Scott) Linebrink or (Boone) Logan (Wednesday) night,'' Guillen said. "That made a big difference for us. He came back and gave us that and it was big.

"He's going to keep going out there.''