White Sox ice cold in home opener
In a week, a month, even five months, the Chicago White Sox could come out and play a bad all-around game at U.S. Cellular Field and the memory would quickly fade.
Home openers are different.
"Fans were ready, rockin' back and ready to go," new third baseman Todd Frazier said. "You want to perform for your fans."
On this day, in front of a rare capacity crowd of 38,019, the White Sox flopped in all phases while losing to the Cleveland Indians 7-1 in a game that featured intermittent snow squalls.
The Sox managed just 3 hits and Frazier's home run in the fourth inning was it for the offense.
"I've been excited about this start for a couple weeks now," No. 5 starter John Danks said. "I definitely pictured it going a lot different in my head."
"I didn't help (Danks) out in that first inning there, and we weren't able to stop the bleeding," new catcher Alex Avila said.
"It's disappointing," manager Robin Ventura said. "You always want to win this one."
The Sox were collectively quick to add that they are only five games into the season, and 80 more remain at the Cell.
There is absolutely no need to panic and palpitate, but Friday was an important day because it was the White Sox's first chance to show they're not the same sloppy team that stumbled through three straight losing seasons.
Instead, Danks gave up 3 runs on 2 hits and a walk to put the Sox in a first-inning hole, although Avila's botched play and throwing error on Carlos Santana's squibbler in front of the plate allowed 2 unearned runs to score.
Avila first thought about flipping the baseball to Danks and forcing out Jason Kipnis at the plate, but there was no chance to make a play. Avila then turned and threw to first base, but it sailed wide right.
"I saw the runner (Kipnis) in the corner of my eye was going to beat (Danks), and I just turned and fired and tried to get at least one," Avila said. "Usually, you just hold on there. That's the first one I've thrown away in quite a while."
Danks allowed 2 more runs in the second inning to put the White Sox in a deeper hole, and the left-hander was lifted after pitching 5 innings and giving up 7 runs (5 earned) on 8 hits.
"I was trying to get the ball down the whole time," Danks said. "I felt like even the hits and extra-base hits we gave up, a lot of them were two-strike counts. We were getting there, down in the zone, just weren't able to make a pitch to put them away. So we'll work on it and get it figured out."
Baserunning blunders really took a toll on the Sox last season, and Avisail Garcia made another one Friday while giving the frigid crowd another reason to groan.
After Melky Cabrera and Garcia drew consecutive one-out walks against Cleveland starter Danny Salazar in the second inning, Indians catcher Yan Gomes picked Garcia off at first base.
"That's being young," Ventura said. "I think now with the new rules, there's not that big of an advantage to getting a really big secondary (lead). You can't take anybody out. The adage of getting out there so you can break up the double play really isn't there anymore. It's like relearning all over again.
"For him, it was too big of a lead. We're down by 5, we need a lot more than just him scoring. So really just shorten up and take care of it that way."