Sox offense comes up short again vs. Twins
MINNEAPOLIS -- Ozzie Guillen didn't even wait for the question.
"Another day without hitting,'' the White Sox manager said with a forced laugh.
It was just like a lot of other days in April for the Sox, who fell 4-3 to the Twins on Wednesday at the Metrodome.
While being swept in the two-game series, the White Sox scored 4 runs on 16 hits. They are last in the American League with a .242 average but somehow rank near the top with 134 runs scored.
Nick Swisher, who singled home Juan Uribe in the fifth inning to make it 3-3, tried to find some positives in the team's offensive struggles.
"It's just been a couple of rough games for us,'' Swisher said. "We haven't really been doing at the plate what we want to. Our pitchers go out there and do a heck of a job for us and we have to start scoring some runs for them.
"It's going to come. We lost two games, tomorrow's an off-day, relax there and get after Toronto.''
The White Sox open a four-game series against the Blue Jays on Friday. Maybe the break will help get the bats going.
"We've had plenty of opportunities to win a lot of games,'' Swisher said. "That's one thing we're going to have to work on. But, hey, I think the one thing we might be doing is trying too hard. Trying to get the big hit every time.
"But I'd much rather take 25 guys who want to go out there and do that than I would guys that don't care, and this team cares. We've got a lot of great guys on this team and a lot of great things are going to happen for us.''
With April in the books, the Sox still are looking for some consistency at the plate. On the flip side, they're still first in the AL Central.
"After the first month, we've got to feel good about ourselves,'' Swisher said. "Obviously there have been a couple games that got away from us. Obviously you'd like to have those back. But all in all, after the first month of the season, standing in first place ain't too shabby.''
The White Sox have a 3.78 ERA, which is the main reason they occupy the top spot. There still is a quiet confidence in the clubhouse that the season really is going to take off when slumping hitters such as Orlando Cabrera (.217), Paul Konerko (.221), Swisher (.226) and Jim Thome (.228) get going.
Then again there has to be a twinge or two of doubt considering the Sox had the lowest team average (.246) in baseball last season.
"We've got absolute studs in the lineup,'' said reliever Matt Thornton, who pitched 2 perfect innings Wednesday. "I'm not worried about it at all. Those guys, it's that old cliché, look at the back of the baseball card.
"We have no worries at all. It's one month of baseball. We're winning. We lost a couple games. That's all it is. Top to bottom, we have one of the best lineups in baseball.''
The Twins came out on top Wednesday after Carlos Gomez led off the seventh with a bunt single against Ehren Wasserman. Brendan Harris sacrificed Gomez to second, and Boone Logan relieved Wasserman.
Logan got Joe Mauer on a groundout, but Justin Morneau laced a 3-2 pitch into the gap in left-center for a ground-rule double to give Minnesota the lead.
The Sox put runners on first and second with one out in the ninth, but pinch hitter Pablo Ozuna flied out on the first pitch he saw from closer Joe Nathan and Swisher took a called third strike to end the game.
"It's tough to win games when you only score 2 or 3 runs a game, and that's what we've been doing lately,'' Guillen said.
Twins 4, White Sox 3
On the mound: Starter Nick Masset kept the Sox in the game while pitching 4 innings and allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks. He also had 5 strikeouts. Matt Thornton had his best outing of the season, pitching 2 scoreless innings and striking out four.
At the plate: Brian Anderson went 3-for-4 to raise his average from .231 to .300. Jermaine Dye (0-for-4) has 2 hits in his last 20 at-bats. Jim Thome was 2-for-4 with a run-scoring double.
-- Scot Gregor