Eaton goes deep again but White Sox lose to Twins
How upside down has this season been for the Chicago White Sox?
Take a look at Adam Eaton, the Sox' 5-foot-8 leadoff man, as one prime example.
At the start of the season, the plan was for Eaton to get on base, use his speed and come around to score on home runs by hitters like Jose Abreu, Adam LaRoche, Melky Cabrera and Avisail Garcia.
Here is what's actually happened.
Eaton hasn't run much (14 stolen bases), but he ranks second on the White Sox with 13 home runs.
The latest longball came in Friday night's 6-2 loss to the Twins at U.S. Cellular Field.
In the fifth inning, Eaton's 2-run homer to center field put the Sox in front, but that was the extent of the offense.
"You're happy for him, but you'd like to have some other guys up there, too," manager Robin Ventura said. "I would like some other guys to hit more than him, though. This ballpark, you can get some homers here. We have to improve in that."
As expected, Abreu leads the White Sox with 27 home runs. But LaRoche and Garcia are stuck on 12 homers each and Cabrera only has 9.
Given those strange statistics, it's little wonder the Sox rank second to last in the American League in home runs (118) and runs scored (545).
"No offense to those guys, but I don't hit too many of them," said Eaton, who had only 1 homer last season. "At the same time, this has been kind of a rough season for a lot of guys. It has been the story of the season, inconsistency here and there."
Not only have the White Sox come up short in the power department, they have consistently failed to come through with any kind of hit when runners are in scoring position.
"We have to get big hits in big situations and get more guys on," Eaton said. "For us, not to rely on the homer. We have to have more baserunners. When we have more baserunners and we give guys more opportunities with runners in scoring position, we have to score more than 2 runs."
Making his second start for the Sox since coming up from Class AAA Charlotte, Erik Johnson pitched 5 innings and allowed 1 run on 4 hits and 5 walks.
The right-hander got in big trouble in the first inning, loading the bases with one out.
Johnson got out of the jam with a strikeout and a nice catch by Garcia in right field, but his high pitch count (113) forced an early exit.
"It was something I had to deal with early," Johnson said. "I thought I threw my fastball very well today in all five innings that I threw. But then I had to find my breaking stuff later. The first inning was a tough one, but just to build off each inning, getting out of there and just grinding one out and throwing up zeros on the board is the most important thing."