Crede RBI single in 9th gives White Sox win over Yankees
Ozzie Guillen has played and managed on the South Side for 18 years, so he knows the drill.
Lose a couple of games in a row and look up at the falling sky.
"We expect that,'' Guillen said. "That's the way it's going to be all year long. When we play good, we're the best. When we play bad, they expect that. (Wednesday) night, we lose 6-4. It isn't like they (Yankees) kicked our butts. But if you're in Chicago you know this is going to happen.
"We have a good team and then all of a sudden we lost to New York. It's like we haven't faced a good ballclub before. That's the way it is, and hopefully we play better.''
After sitting through two rain delays Thursday night at U.S. Cellular Field, the White Sox did come out and play better.
Joe Crede's single scored Carlos Quentin in the ninth inning to
give the Sox a 7-6 victory over the Yankees in the series finale.
The Sox' bats finally came alive following the second delay, which lasted 51 minutes.
Jumping on reliever Ross Ohlendorf, the White Sox sent 10 hitters to the plate in the fourth inning and scored 5 runs on 5 hits. That turned a 3-0 deficit into a 2-run lead.
When Jim Thome hit a solo home run in the fifth to put the Sox in front 6-3, it looked like the Sox were going to avoid being swept by New York in the three-game series.
But nothing has come easy for the White Sox the last few days, and that was the case again Thursday.
While Yankees starter Phil Hughes came out of the game after the second rain stoppage -- the first one delayed the start of the game 34 minutes -- Sox starter Gavin Floyd stayed in.
Floyd was in a good position to get the win after Thome's 513th career home run, which came off LaTroy Hawkins, but New York's Melky Cabrera hit a 2-run homer off Floyd with two outs in the sixth inning to make it 6-5.
The Yankees tied it in the seventh as the Sox' bullpen continued to struggle.
Matt Thornton got the first two outs in the inning before yielding a single to Bobby Abreu and walking Hideki Matsui. Scott Linebrink relieved Thornton and allowed an RBI single to Morgan Ensberg as the Yankees tied the game.
To make matters worse for the Sox, right fielder Jermaine Dye came out of the game in the seventh inning. Dye is day to day with a strained left groin.
Guillen held the slumping Juan Uribe out of the starting lineup and went with Alexei Ramirez in an attempt to generate more offense.
Ramirez also is off to a slow start at the plate in limited play, but he delivered an RBI double in the fourth inning.
If he continues producing, Ramirez's playing time should increase.
"This kid guarantees me a lot of things,'' Guillen said. "He can play center field better than a lot of people, he can play shortstop real good, I can bring him to third base in a tough situation, and he plays second base.
"We're not thinking about how many at-bats for the future. We're thinking about who can help us win games this year. In the future we'll see what happens, but we don't know what the future will be.''