Not Bad Gaining a Split on Road

[greg775]

There were a lot of good things that happened in KC.

 

--For once, a former Sox player didn't beat us single handedly (Graff)

--Loaiza did pretty well and doesn't appear to be a one-year wonder.

--Mark B. did very well.

--Koch got a save which can only help him.

--Our catchers were on fire at the plate.

-- Lee was great; Aaron looked like he belonged.

-- Maggs was Maggs.

-- Konerko had one good day out of two.

-- Frank was good.

On the negative side:

--Uribe and Harris didn't scratch a hit (too early to panic).

--Poor Crede went hitless (too early to panic)

--Poor Jose V was not good at the plate.

The best news of all: Read the first few graphs of this AP story about Oz.

A feel good story!! I love Oz.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Ozzie Guillen felt he could almost hear his country cheering.

Fueled by solid relief pitching and three home runs, the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 Wednesday and made Guillen the first Venezuelan-born manager to get a major league win.

“We have a lot of political problems in our country, like in a lot of countries,” Guillen said. “To help my country, to give something real positive to my country is something I feel good about. I feel proud. I’m pretty sure my country feels real proud right now.”

The longtime White Sox shortstop made headlines across his native land when he was named the major league’s first Venezuelan manager.

Miguel Olivo, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Lee all homered for the White Sox, who lost Monday’s opener 9-7 when the Royals scored six times for the biggest ninth-inning comeback in an opener in 103 years.

“I know for a fact that when they see us lose the way we lost, there were a lot of Venezuelans who were hurt,” Guillen said. “Now they are going to hear what happened today and they are going to feel good.”

The loss means the Royals cannot repeat their 9-0 start of last year, which catapulted them into a season-long contention in the AL Central.

“Hey, you didn’t think it would happen every single time, did you?” Royals manager Tony Pena said.

Esteban Loaiza (1-0) handed the bullpen a lead, and Mike Jackson, Cliff Politte and Billy Koch stopped the Royals over the final three innings.

Loaiza, second in last year’s AL Cy Young Award voting after going 21-9, did not allow a hit until Mike Sweeney’s RBI single with two outs in the third. He allowed three runs, five hits and four walks in six-plus innings.

Koch induced Beltran, who homered with Angel Berroa aboard to win it Monday, to fly out to shallow center with Berroa on first for the save.

Darrell May (0-1), the Royals’ pitcher of the year last season, gave up all three homers and was charged with four runs and six hits through five innings.

Olivo, the No. 9 batter, homered for a 2-0 lead in the second after Aaron Rowand’s two-out single.

Ordonez made it 3-1 with a solo homer in the fifth. Then, one out later, Lee hit his second homer in two games, a 430-foot drive to center.

Aaron Guiel homered off Loaiza leading off the fifth. In just his second major league game in left field, he made two strong throws to cut down Ordonez and Lee trying to stretch singles into doubles in the seventh and eighth innings.

Jackson relieved Loaiza when he walked Guiel leading off the seventh, and Guiel scored on Carlos Beltran’s infield out.

Frank Thomas fouled off 13 pitches, including 12 in a row, before drawing a walk off May in the first. May threw 35 pitches in the inning.

“It got to the point where I thought he was going to swing at anything,” May said. “So I was trying to throw sliders in the dirt, changeups in the dirt. I tried to come in on him and still he just kept flicking everything off. It was a great job by him.”

Notes: The Royals put INF Desi Relaford on the 15-day DL and called up LHP Jaime Cerda from Triple-A Omaha. Relaford pulled his left hamstring during the opener on Monday. ... The White Sox are opening on the road for the 14th straight year but when they get home will stay for a season-long 12-game homestand. ... The previous team to overcome a four-run deficit in the ninth or later to win an opener was Detroit, which trailed 13-4 in 1901 before scoring 10 in the ninth to beat Milwaukee, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. ... The White Sox botched their infield defense after Sweeney’s RBI single in the third. Beltran was caught between second and third, but got back to second because nobody covered the bag. Sweeney, who’d almost reached second, returned safely to first because nobody was there, either.