White Sox offense erases all doubts

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White Sox offense erases all doubts

With baseball's best lineup, who needs pitching?

By Mike Bauman / MLB.com   

 

CHICAGO -- The South Side Hit Men were at it again Sunday, lighting up a future Hall of Famer, scoring runs in convenient chunks, beating their crosstown rivals.

And the Chicago White Sox were doing this once again without the services of their most consistent hitter, Magglio Ordonez, who has missed 30 games this season, and who is currently on the disabled list following surgery to repair torn knee cartilage.

 

The focus of this weekend for the general Windy City baseball population would be on the White Sox playing the Cubs, but by taking the last two games of this series, the Sox also climbed back to within one game of the first-place Minnesota Twins in the American League Central.

 

"People think this is big because we're playing the Cubs," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "But it's bigger because we're both in a pennant race."

 

The White Sox are not a team without question marks. All of the people who have been tried in their No. 5 spot in the rotation, for instance, have won a total of one game this season. But they are leading the Major Leagues in the one offensive category the importance of which is beyond dispute, scoring 5.78 runs per game. That kind of production will tend to compensate for some other shortcomings.

 

Sunday, before 38,526 fans, the third straight sellout of the weekend, the Sox outscored the Cubs, 9-4. All of the runs -- seven of them earned -- were charged to Greg Maddux. Maddux came in looking for the 296th victory of his career and left, two batters into the fifth inning, with his 2004 ERA swollen to 4.49.

 

The Sox scored in each of the first five innings. This was the kind of day that would warm the winter dreams of Sox fans, a persistent pounding of a prominent Cubs pitcher. But this Sox offense was real enough.

 

And it has not missed a beat in the absence of Ordonez, who, over the last five seasons, has averaged 32 home runs and 118 RBIs. You can't find one person to replace that kind of production, but you can get by if some other people step up, as they say in the trade.

 

Stepping up on this Interleague weekend at U.S. Cellular Field was first baseman Paul Konerko, who drove in three runs in each of the three games. He had three-run home runs Friday and Saturday, and then Sunday varied the pace with a two-run single and a sacrifice fly.

 

"Having Magglio out of the lineup means someone has got to step up, and he did," Guillen said of Konerko.

 

"We were bitten by Konkero," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "What did he get in this series, nine RBIs? It's hard to win against a guy driving in runs like that."

 

There was a double dose of White Sox rejoicing Sunday. After taking two out of three from the Cubs the White Sox announced that they had traded for Seattle right-hander Freddy Garcia. This was a major step for a team that had found itself one starting pitcher short for much of this season.

 

The White Sox solidified their rotation and improved their chances with this acquisition. With the trade, the focus shifted toward pitching. But Sunday, once again, the strongest suit for the Sox had been run production. The White Sox have given their fans hope with all these runs. But this weekend, outscoring the Cubs, they also made their fans downright gleeful.