Williams doesn't want Sox looking in rearview mirror
Kenny Williams is fond of saying he looks for players that are not only talented, but “Chicago tough.”
Right now the White Sox GM sees a team missing that edge.
“There are individuals that bring that every day, but as a whole I think we're licking our wounds a little bit too much,” Williams told reporters in a panel discussion at the Double Duty Classic at U.S. Cellular Field on Wednesday.
The Sox licked their wounds in a good way Wednesday night, bouncing back from what Sox manager Ozzie Guillen labeled “the worst loss of the season” on Tuesday to beat the Rockies 3-2 at Coors Field.
The win, coupled with the Tigers 16-9 loss to the Mets, pulled the Sox within 4 games of Detroit and Cleveland in the AL Central.
Considering the angst surrounding this 39-42 Sox team the first three months of the season, things could be worse on the South Side.
A big source of Sox fans' complaints, $56 million free agent Adam Dunn, sat the first two games of the Rockies series. Dunn, he of the .173 average and 100 strikeouts, took part in a simulated game Wednesday with a pair of Sox minor league pitchers and will be in the lineup Thursday either at first base or a corner outfield spot.
Williams insisted on Tuesday he doesn't regret for a minute signing Dunn.
He prefers to look ahead, not behind, and wouldn't mind his players doing the same.
“At some point you got to say the (heck) with it, whatever you've done at this point in the season you got to wipe it away and get after it,” Williams said Wednesday. “We have a chance to still win this thing. The individual numbers may not be what you want them to be or are accustomed to them being, but we still have a chance collectively to celebrate at the end of the year.”
Another Sox sore spot, .221-hitting Alex Rios, was back in the lineup Wednesday after Sox manager Ozzie Guillen pulled him for poor baserunning Tuesday.
Rios was ready to move forward Wednesday, while Guillen told reporters before Wednesday's game he wasn't “sending a message to Alex.”
“I sent the message to the team,” Guillen said. “The worst thing that can happen to a manager is when their players don't play the game right. I don't have many rules — just be there on time, be there for the national anthem and play the game right.”
Rios has hit .343 over his last nine games, but went 0-for-4 on Wednesday. He misplayed a Carlos Gonzalez drive off the fence into a triple in the third inning, but later made a nice tumbling catch on a Seth Smith sinking liner to start the Rockies ninth.
A night after Troy Tulowitzki scored the winning run from first base for the Rockies on a 13th-inning single, daring Sox baserunning was the difference.
Carlos Quentin and Paul Konerko singles off Rockies closer Huston Street started the Sox ninth in a 2-2 tie. Alexei Ramirez struck out, and A.J. Pierzynski hit a looping fly ball that Smith made a running grab on in short right field.
Sox third-base coach Jeff Cox sent Quentin, and Quentin scored as Rockies catcher Chris Ianetta couldn't corral Smith's throw on the short hop.