Another close call, but Sox rally falls short in 6-5 loss to Angels

In retrospect, maybe White Sox general manager Kenny Williams shouldn't have called that team meeting before Wednesday night's game against the Angels.

"I think it depends," first baseman Paul Konerko said. "Most time, no, I think you kind of have your meetings when you get to spring and you kind of have your plan of how you want to do things and then you just go play."

Williams talked to the underachieving Sox for 25 minutes and they proceeded to go out and lose to Los Angeles 3-2 even though the Angels totaled just 3 hits.

With Jake Peavy on the mound Thursday looking for his fourth straight win, the White Sox lost again, this time 6-5 at rainy U.S. Cellular Field.

Looking more like he did early in the season when his velocity was down and his command a problem, Peavy allowed 2 runs in the first inning, 2 in the third and 2 more in the sixth.

"He struggled," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "He settled down for a little bit and then he gave up that home run (a 2-run shot to Juan Rivera in the sixth inning). That was big."

Trailing 6-1 in the eighth inning, the Sox loaded the bases with two outs against L.A. reliever Kevin Jepsen and went to work.

Gordon Beckham finally came through with a 2-run single to center field, and after Juan Pierre reached on an infield single against Fernando Rodney to load the bases again, A.J. Pierzynski drove in 2 more runs with a ground-rule double to make it a 6-5 game.

"That's a good comeback," Guillen said. "The way we've played all year, every time we're down 2 runs, 3 runs, we're done. We bounced back. A little late, but we bounced back."

It was a spirited rally on a dreary night, but the White Sox (16-24) couldn't add on or avoid a two-game sweep to the Angels.

And they are 0-2 since the meeting.

"Every now and then, it's probably not a bad thing," Konerko said. "I mean ... there's not a lot of meetings when things are going well so I think you always hope that you never have any. But you know how it is, when you're in the battle here sometimes things get a little bit hectic and out of sorts and you know, it might not be a bad idea to have one every now and again."

The Sox lost another close one - 23 of their 40 games have been decided by 2 runs or less - but Konerko at least likes the way they've been competing.

"You have to put things in perspective," Konerko said. "If we go out and don't play well (Thursday) or don't make the playoffs, no one's going to die because of that. Conversely, if we go out and play well and win, you know we're not curing cancer out here, either.

"You want to play like it's Game 7 every night and get after it out there, but you have to kind of have a perspective of where it all fits in the big picture. Sometimes by doing that, you kind of realize that it's not the biggest deal in the world and life will go on either way and that can kind of kind of loosen you up and I think that's what (Williams) was trying to convey."