Sox’ bats heat up along with the weather
Go figure.
The White Sox play in one of the most miserable weather markets in the major leagues, yet they never seem to get the bats going until it heats up.
Maybe, in the future, general manager Kenny Williams will only acquire players with cold bloodlines.
Or maybe this is just how it’s going to be. The Sox are going to struggle early when the temperatures are low in April and May and make up for the lost ground the rest of the way.
It was a balmy 86 degrees Sunday at U.S. Cellular Field, so you know what that means.
“Hopefully with the weather, that was our excuse because of the early weather,” manager Ozzie Guillen said after the White Sox pounded the Dodgers 8-3. “Now I think the weather’s been nice, I think it’s nicer to hit when the weather gets warm.”
Alexei Ramirez sure seemed to like it.
The Sox’ Cuban-born shortstop always seems to scuffle when the temperature is below 70, but Ramirez was red-hot in the lopsided interleague win, matching his career high in hits (4) and RBI (5).
Ramirez got the White Sox off to a promising start with a 2-run homer off Los Angeles starter Hiroki Kuroda in the first inning and wound up falling a triple short of the cycle.
“It feels just like it’s in Cuba,” Ramirez said through a translator. “Down there, you just come out and play.”
The White Sox finally caught a good stretch of weather toward the end of their homestand, and they didn’t waste it.
The Sox had 10-plus hits in their last four games at the Cell, and everyone from Ramirez to Juan Pierre (seven-game hitting streak) to A.J. Pierzynski (8-for-23 on the homestand) to Gordon Beckham (4-for-his-last-10) got involved.
Hey, even Adam Dunn had an RBI single Sunday.
Before he scored Ramirez with the basehit in the eighth inning, Dunn was in a 2-for-25 rut with 13 strikeouts.
“Well, I mean, I’m going to fix it,” Dunn said. “It’s just a matter of how or when. It’s one of those things sitting around pouting about it, moping around about it isn’t going to change anything.
“Another thing I’ve been doing, just been trying to almost get out of this stupid funk that I’m in by one swing, swinging as hard as I can. And that’s really not me; I don’t swing as hard as I can. I never have. I need to just relax and get back to the basics of seeing it and hitting it.”
The weather is warming up, so maybe Dunn will catch the offensive fever like so many of his teammates.
“It makes it easier when it’s warmer out,” Paul Konerko said after the White Sox won their 15th straight interleague series. “It’s a combination of that and guys just knowing the team wouldn’t go like that forever.
“Similar to last year when we got off to a slow start, for six or seven weeks before we really came on, and why that happens I don’t know.
“But hopefully next year it won’t happen again. Hopefully that’s behind us now, and it’s starting to come together, little bits and pieces. Not all at once, but there’s some good times out there and the starting pitching has been good.
“We’re not where we want to be sure, but we’ve still got four months to be where we want to be.”