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Saturday, Jul. 29 4:10pm ET
White Sox unhappy with home-plate ump | |||||
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GAME LOG
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- The Chicago White Sox, their division lead down to single digits, exhibited all the frustrations of a team wary of its fortified competition. The White Sox's 6-5 loss to Anaheim on Saturday was their sixth in eight games. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Indians, bolstered through a flurry of trades, overwhelmed Baltimore 14-3 in the opener of a day-night doubleheader to move within nine games of Chicago. But Frank Thomas said his team was frustrated by an expanding strike zone, not a shrinking AL Central lead. "We struggled with some situations we can't control. My job is to hit, and I don't like having the bat taken out of my hands," Thomas said. "I hate to see a team 1-through-9 argue about the strike zone all day long. It was a joke. I've never seen so many guys complain." The complaints peaked in the ninth inning, when Paul Konerko argued after being called out on strikes and was ejected by plate umpire Dale Scott. "But everybody was losing it. It was contagious," Thomas said. "Scott's a very good umpire. Maybe he just had a bad day." Adam Kennedy's fifth-inning home run -- Anaheim's fourth of the game -- snapped a 5-5 tie. The Angels' bullpen did the rest, holding Chicago hitless over the last 3 1-3 innings in relief of Kent Bottenfield (7-8). "They're playing tough," Thomas said of the Angels, who once again overcame a sizable early deficit for their 26th come-from-behind victory. "We got a big early lead, and they came back." Thomas' 0-for-4 included a swinging strikeout in the third inning with the bases loaded and none out. But his anger was focused on Shigetoshi Hasegawa's 2-1 pitch to him in the eighth with the tying run on second and two outs. The pitch was called a strike, and Thomas eventually flied out to right by lunging for an outside pitch. "I can't believe how low that pitch was," Thomas said after reviewing it on tape. "It's a joke. I thought that was the game's biggest pitch. At 3-and-1, it's a whole different situation for me." Thomas implied that the White Sox might have made themselves a marked team, even to umpires, by racing to the majors' best record. "When you play well, everybody's watching you," he said. "Maybe that's the case." Chicago no longer has that concern. The White Sox (63-41) relinquished the majors' top record to Atlanta, which improved to 64-40 with its win over Houston. "We're not worried about (the Indians). We just have to take care of business," said Thomas, the veteran leader in Chicago's young clubhouse. "We're fortunate to have a lead, but there's a long way to go, and any lead can get eaten away if you get too comfortable. The Indians have given themselves a shot in the arm and fired up their clubhouse. But we just have to take care of our own business." "We don't have to be concerned with any other club," Chicago manager Jerry Manuel said. "We just haven't been playing very good baseball." Kennedy connected off reliever Lorenzo Barcelo (0-1) for his seventh homer of the season. "There was so much baseball left to play, you don't expect that to be the game-winner," Kennedy said. "But then our bullpen kind of took over. They put up those big numbers early, then the defense wasn't really tested the last four innings." Al Levine got four outs, and Hasegawa and Troy Percival got three each. Angels relievers have held Chicago to three runs in 16 2-3 innings this season. Percival pitched the ninth for his 25th save in 32 chances. Rookie Mark Buehrle allowed five runs and nine hits in 3 2-3 innings in his third start for the White Sox. Anaheim went ahead in the second on Troy Glaus' 31st homer, but Chicago took a 4-1 lead in the third on Ray Durham's RBI single and Konerko's three-run double. Benji Gil homered leading off the bottom half, but Durham hit another RBI single in the fourth for a 5-2 lead. Matt Walbeck hit Anaheim's third leadoff homer in the fourth, and Anaheim tied it later in the inning on RBI doubles by Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson. Game notesThe Angels have four or more homers in 10 games, breaking the previous club record of nine, set in 1995. ... Walbeck matched his career high with six homers. He did it in 101 at-bats; in 1998 he needed 338. ... Thomas is 5-for-27 in eight games. ... Mo Vaughn (0-for-3) has one hit in his last 18 at-bats, but that was a tiebreaking three-run homer that gave Anaheim a 10-7 victory Friday night. ... Darin Erstad (0-for-5) went hitless in consecutive games for only the second time this season. He was also hitless May 6-7. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Chi. White Sox Clubhouse Anaheim Clubhouse RECAPS Cleveland 14 Baltimore 3
Baltimore 4
Anaheim 6
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