Fans let Vazquez hear it as he exits
If there had been a noise meter to measure the booing at U.S. Cellular Field on Saturday night, White Sox starter Javier Vazquez would have been the winner by a mile.
Vazquez was jeered off the mound by the big crowd of 36,031 when he exited in Cleveland's 6-run fifth inning, pounded for the third straight start when the White Sox have needed him the most.
Pitching on just three days rest, Vazquez gave up 7 runs on 7 hits in 4 innings in the White Sox' crushing 12-6 loss to the Indians that prevented them from regaining first place in the AL Central for the second straight night following a Minnesota loss.
"Minnesota's giving us a chance to pull away and we haven't been able to do it," Vazquez said.
Manager Ozzie Guillen second guessed himself for using Vazquez on short rest, but he doesn't have a lot of options right now with the season slipping away.
"He was throwing the ball real good and had a great feeling for the game and all of a sudden he got erratic," Guillen said. "Maybe I blame myself and our coaching staff. We brought him back one day too early, maybe. If that's the reason, I take full responsibility for it, but that's the best option we have with him out there pitching that way."
Vazquez claimed he felt fine.
"It had nothing to do with the three days," Vazquez said. "I just didn't make the pitches. I kind of lost the strike zone a little bit and they got a couple hits here and there and that was the game."
Well, not exactly.
The White Sox rallied with 4 runs in the eighth inning to creep within 8-6, but reliever Scott Linebrink got only one hitter out in the top of the ninth and surrendered 4 runs, killing any comeback hopes.
"We had a nice little rally going there in the eighth inning and I should have gone out there and got us back in the dugout," Linebrink said. "That's the job of any reliever, to go out there and try to keep the momentum on your side and I didn't do that tonight."
Vazquez sidestepped questions about an apparent confrontation with catcher A.J. Pierzynski on the mound following Asdrubal Cabrera's 3-run double in the fifth.
Television cameras caught a heated exchange between the two which Vazquez refused to address.
"I'm just not going to talk about it," Vazquez said. "It's between me and A.J. It's done for me. If he wants to talk about it that's fine, but I'm not going to say anything."
Pierzynski didn't speak with reporters.
"We've got to stick together as a team," Linebrink said. "We started this thing and we have to finish it together."
Guillen took Saturday's loss better than Friday's.
"Last night I was so upset I broke everything in my office," he said.
The stressful ups and down of a pennant race never were more evident than the last two days on the South Side. Guillen said he's hearing some unpleasant things from frustrated fans.
"One guy said, 'You're ruining it for us,'" Guillen said. "I said, 'I didn't throw a (bleeping) pitch.'
"If we lose this thing I'm going to ask Jerry (Reinsdorf) for a private plane to go back to Miami," Guillen said. "I'll be embarrassed to walk in the airport and face the people knowing you let them down."