Buehrle, Sox wilt in K.C. heat
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The dog days took a bite out of the White Sox on Saturday afternoon.
And no Sox player had a worse case of flea infestation than starting pitcher Mark Buehrle, who lobbed 4 innings of glorified batting practice at Kauffman Stadium in a 9-7 loss to the Royals.
"It's the dog days for everyone in baseball,'' manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We've got to be strong enough mentally to overcome and bounce back. I have confidence.''
The White Sox, and Buehrle, had every reason to be confident in the early going.
An RBI groundout by Carlos Quentin in the first inning and back-to-back solo home runs by Jim Thome and Paul Konerko in the second looked like the building blocks to a blowout.
Unfortunately for Buehrle, he crumbled in the bottom of the second inning, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits.
By the time the ace left-hander was pulled with one out in the fifth, he had given up 8 runs on 14 hits.
"I don't know if I could go out there and try to give up 14 hits,'' Buehrle said after his ERA jumped from 3.69 to 4.07. "It seemed like I was making my pitches and they were hitting them, and at times I was missing my spots and they were hitting them pretty hard. It was just one of those days today.''
Actually, it was a miserably hot day.
Playing in a heat index of 111 degrees, Buehrle faded fast.
"Don't get me wrong, I was pretty beat out there,'' Buehrle said. "But both teams had to deal with it. I like pitching in hot weather, but today was pretty ridiculous. This is one of those days where you wanted to have a quick game and get the guys back in the dugout because it was so hot out there.
"Falling behind in the count, a lot of basehits, I didn't do anything good today.''
The same could be said about the White Sox' pitching staff as a whole lately.
The offense struggled in April and parts of May, but it's been piling up runs, and the addition of Ken Griffey Jr. adds another weapon.
But Sox pitchers have cooled off in the heat over the last 18 games, going 8-10 with a 6.27 ERA.
"I'm excited about Junior,'' Guillen said of Griffey. "We've got a better club. But if we're not pitching, I don't care how many Juniors we're going to bring here. We've got to start pitching better if we're going to win. A lot of people think it's out there in the bullpen, but you've got to drive the ball before you can putt it.
"Everything starts with the starters. You sit there and the starters don't go long, then you've got to go to the bullpen. In baseball, if you don't pitch, you're not going to win.''
The Sox tried outslugging the Royals, cutting into an 8-4 deficit with 3 runs in the eighth. But with two outs and the tying run on third base, Juan Uribe struck out swinging following a 12-pitch at-bat against K.C. closer Joakim Soria.
"It's tough to battle back, but these guys - all nine innings, they didn't give up,'' Buehrle said. "They kept battling back and made it a close game.''