Crede keeps Sox rolling
Recent White Sox trends can be lumped into two categories: the pre-Ozzie Guillen Tampa rant and what has occurred since.
Last Sunday, baseball's most expressive manager went off after a loss to the Rays, decrying the 6 runs his team had posted in three games, a sleepy offense that hadn't topped 10 hits in its previous six outings.
Was the Sox offense ignited by Guillen's rant?
Or would the current offensive explosion that included an 11-2 victory over the Twins on Saturday night have occurred anyway after a month loaded with road games?
Or because of the arrival of warmer weather at home?
Or because of favorable pitching matchups against the Royals and Twins?
Pick the reason, but the post-rant results are indisputable.
The White Sox won their fifth straight game before 32,930 at U.S. Cellular Field by pounding out 16 hits for the second straight night. They have eclipsed double digits in hits in every game since Mt. Guillen erupted on Florida's Gulf Coast.
"I don't send a message just to scare people or wake people up," Guillen said. "I just send the message because I believed that's what we have. I believed that's what kind of ballclub we have and what kind of production we can get from the players. It's worked out pretty good for us."
Joe Crede is the hottest of all Sox hitters. He hit a pair of 3-run home runs Saturday to power the offense, the second night in a row he went yard twice against the Twins. The veteran has 8 hits in his last 11 at-bats, including a double and 5 home runs.
But Crede downplayed the significance of Guillen's rant, saying instead that a team loaded with veterans like the Sox would have snapped out of its doldrums anyway because of continued hard work.
"In baseball you deal with all kinds of stuff whether it's from the manager or from the media or anybody," Crede said. "I think as a professional baseball player, you go about your business the same way and you give the same effort every day. The results are there sometimes and sometimes they ain't."
The Sox took control in the fourth inning by battering veteran Livian Hernandez for 4 runs on 5 hits, highlighted by Crede's line-drive home run to left.
Crede helped the Sox pour it on in the eighth inning when he hit his second 3-run homer off the foul pole in left field.
Such offensive production made things easier for starting pitcher Mark Buehrle (3-6), who scattered 7 hits in 8 innings.
"I'm not going to sit here and complain, getting this many runs," Buehrle said.
White Sox 11, Twins 2
At the plate: The White Sox collected 16 hits for the second straight game. Joe Crede went 2-for-4, with 2 home runs for the second day in a row, the first White Sox to do so since Greg Norton on May 27-28, 1999 at Detroit. Every starter had at least 1 hit except Carlos Quentin, who went 0-for-5.
On the mound: Mark Buehrle threw 105 pitches in 8 innings, allowing 1 run on 7 hits with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk. Nick Masset allowed 1 run on 3 hits in a ninth-inning, mop-up appearance.
-- Jerry Fitzpatrick