Ozzie Guillen cares, hates to lose, especially four in a row
He swears because he cares.
But as far as rants go, manager Ozzie Guillen was pretty tame after the White Sox blew a 4-0 lead Tuesday night at Kansas City and lost their fourth straight.
"Last night, I know a lot of players were making a bet I was going to go crazy," Guillen said before Wednesday night's game against the Tigers at U.S. Cellular Field was rained out. "I need my health first."
While dropping a few expletives after the loss to the Royals, Guillen said he's going to keep speaking out when he feels it's necessary.
"I just want my players to know I'm here for them," Guillen said. "Most of those guys, they've played more than two years for me. They know the way I handle stuff.
"They know I love them; they know I care about them. If I don't get mad, if I don't get emotional, that's the day I walk out of our league.
"Because that means I don't care for this anymore. I get emotional. I kicked something (Tuesday); I think I broke my toe. But if I don't get that way, that means it's time to go home. That means I don't care about the ballclub, I don't care about baseball.
"I do. I hate to lose. And I hate to lose when we lose the way we're losing. We're better than that."
The Sox rank second to last in the American League in runs scored (115), and the pitching staff has allowed 25 runs during the losing streak.
No wonder Guillen after Tuesday's loss said: "I think some people on this team better check their (bleep). Some people think for sure they're going to be the stars, then they better check their (bleep). They better start thinking about the way we're playing."
Veteran right fielder Jermaine Dye understands the outburst.
"I'm used to it," Dye said. "There comes a point in time when, if we're not doing it, he has to say something. Hopefully guys take that to heart and go out there and try to do a little bit more to help this team."
Alexei Ramirez (.211) was not in Wednesday's starting lineup, and the slumping shortstop is going to be on the bench until further notice.
"It's not a rest," Guillen said of sitting Ramirez and going with Jayson Nix at short. "I always tell my players, give yourself a chance. Get good at-bats. But when you see one at-bat after another, after another, after another, and no results, no adjustments - we talked to Alexei a few times.
"I don't mind 0-for-4. I don't mind struggles. I don't mind being in a slump. But how are you in a slump? How do you do something about it? I need some offense, and that's the reason we're going to put Nix back there. I need the offense."
A few wins would be nice, too, and Guillen said the White Sox are good enough to get them.
"If I didn't think we could win with this ballclub, then I would say, 'OK, listen, I don't have the ballclub to win,' " Guillen said. "I think we can. We're not playing good and we're only a few games out. Let's start to play better and you'll see the results."
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