White Sox Blow Opener

(in part, from the SunTimes)

There was a lead-grabbing home run by Joe Crede, a stretcher on the field when the Kansas City Royals' Michael Tucker fouled a ball off his leg and a disaster of a home debut by Scott Schoeneweis, who failed to retire a batter.

This one had it all, including the 2,000th hit of Frank Thomas' career, which he delivered with a bang on a solo home run to left field to stop an 0-for-17 slide.

ROYALS 13
WHITE SOX 9

It was one of the worst pitching performances of the season by the Sox. Starter Jon Garland and Schoeneweis gave up four runs each, but at least Garland went five-plus innings. Schoeneweis didn't retire any of the four batters he faced. Never fear. The White Sox still have Loaiza pitching tonight, who is 1-0 with a 2.77 ERA against the Royals this season. He left with the lead in his last start in Kansas City last week before the Royals rallied against the bullpen. The Bartolo Colon, who has given up 4 earned runs in the last 23.2 innings pitched, goes the night after.

Mariotti notes that while the fans are back,

"the Sox let two recurring bugaboos--bullpen catastrophes and fielding gaffes--spoil a comeback on what could have been a landmark night. There is no justifiable reason they shouldn't overcome Kansas City for the American League Central title, but a 13-9 loss to the first-place Royals left the full house with an empty feeling. The Sox apparently intend to make this race harder than necessary.

As usual, the burden of explanation was on ragdoll manager Jerry Manuel, whose Sox future depends on these final seven weeks. The latest question: Why did he yank starter Jon Garland after a mere 79 pitches, with a runner on first and none out in the sixth, to insert newcomer Scott Schoeneweis? What seemed a reasonable plan--a lefty facing left-handed hitters--turned into a seven-run implosion. When Manuel trotted out to mercifully remove Schoeneweis, he was pelted with boos.

And since the Sox started winning last month, a trend followed by Ken Williams' timely deals, folks have responded in numbers that make us realize this is still a two-team balltown. After averaging only 16,424 over their first 16 home dates, the Sox have averaged close to 28,000 over their last 28. "

The attendance of 43,922 was Chicago's fourth-largest crowd of the season.

from the Trib

The Sox have reached two interim goals this season and have had letdowns each time. While they were languishing below .500, the goal was to reach the break-even mark. Since May 1 they have twice rallied from several games below .500 to square their record, only to fall backward both times. They battled to reach 20-20 on May 15, then lost four straight and didn't return to .500 until July 2 at 42-42, whereupon they proceeded to fall five games below .500 over the next nine days.

They climbed above .500 seemingly for good from 50-50 and made their goal to overtake the Kansas City Royals for first place. They virtually did that Aug. 1 with a three-game sweep in K.C. and a win at Seattle, then lost the next three, including Monday's 13-9 loss to the Royals.

Magglio Ordonez was named American League player of the month for July after hitting .429 with seven home runs and 24 RBIs. He led the league in average, hits (45), total bases (81), doubles (13), slugging percentage (.771) and extra-base hits (21). His .429 average is the fifth-highest monthly average in White Sox history.

Kansas City needs just two victories to equal last year's total after beating the Sox 13-9 Monday night.

Meanwhile, the "other" team in the race, the Twins won-lost record in July 2002 was 19-7. This year in July, with essentially the same team, it was 10-16. They beat the O's last night to stay within 4.5 of the lead.

NL Central Horse Race

The National League Central Division race has entered its final third, with little definition yet. Houston leads the Cardinals by two games and Chicago by 3 1/2 with the first two clubs having 51 games left and the Cubs 52. The remaining schedules slightly favor the Astros. Both the Astros and the Cardinals have 28 home games left and only 23 on the road. The Astros have 28 games left against teams with .500 records or above while the Cardinals have 32 of their remaining 51 against .500 or above teams, including six this week here against Florida and Atlanta, six with wild-card leader Philadelphia and the final three of the season on the road against wild-card contender Arizona.

The Cubs have only 24 of their final 52 games at home and have 27 of their final 52 against .500 teams or above.

Head-to-head, the Cardinals play the Cubs eight times -- five in Chicago -- and Houston six times, evenly split between St. Louis and Houston. The Astros and Cubs have seven games left, with four of those in Wrigley Field next week.

The Cubs' relative lack of home games the rest of the season may not be a disadvantage, though. They are only 28-29 at home, a far inferior record to the Astros' 33-20 mark at home and the Cardinals' home record of 31-22.

Cardinals return home on Tuesday to face the Florida Marlins. Wednesday's game of that series is expected to match outstanding rookie Dontrelle Willis (10-2) of Florida against impressive Cardinals rookie Haren (2-2).

8/5 W. Williams vs Fla (Penny)
8/6 D. Haren vs Fla (Willis)
8/7 B. Tomko vs Fla (Beckett)
8/8 G. Stephenson vs Atl (Ortiz)


Meanwhile, the division leading Astros have what amounts to a bye series against the NY Mets.

The Cubs are a sinking ship?:

10-10 over their last 20 games.

The Cubs' health has taken hard hits, most recently the broken hand that likely will cost them second baseman Mark Grudzielanek for a month. They lost Mark Prior (shoulder) for three weeks, and will find out Tuesday in San Diego how far he has come back. They lost Sammy Sosa three times, to a beaning, a toenail infection and a suspension. They lost Hee Seop Choi to a concussion. Tom Goodwin is still out with a hamstring strain. Corey Patterson is gone with a knee injury.

The Cubs begin a week of West Coast games Tuesday against the Padres and the Dodgers. Then for most of the next several weeks they face teams with records above .500. Fourteen of the games are against Houston and St. Louis, teams also trying to muscle into the playoffs.

The Cubs have won two of three in their last three series and are 28-25 on the road. Eric Karros has batted .326 in his 60 starts and .364 over his last 31 games. Antonio Alfonseca has quietly re-established some rhythm, yielding only one run over 10 2/3 innings in his last eight outings. San Diego's Mark Loretta has 15 hits over his last 10 games and ranks among the top 10 at .319. Rod Beck is 15-for-15 in save chances since joining the Padres on June 2.

Tonight: 9:05 p.m.; Mark Prior (8-5, 3.01) vs. Brian Lawrence (5-13, 4.86). Wednesday: Kerry Wood (10-8, 3.49) vs. Adam Eaton (6-7, 4.15). Thursday Carlos Zambrano (9-8, 3.33) vs. Kevin Jarvis (4-3, 4.26).

CENTRAL
Houston 111 60 51 .541 - 33-20 27-31

St. Louis 111 58 53 .523 2.0 31-22 27-31

Chicago Cubs 110 56 54 .509 3.5 28-29 28-25

Pittsburgh 109 51 58 .468 8.0 25-32 26-26

Cincinnati 111 51 60 .459 9.0 27-31 24-29

Milwaukee 111 44 67 .396 16.0 19-35 25-32

NL WILDCARD:
1. Philadelphia 111 62 49 .559 - 34-25 28-24

2. Florida 111 60 51 .541 2.0 35-23 25-28

3. St. Louis 111 58 53 .523 4.0 31-22 27-31

4. Montreal 112 58 54 .518 4.5 36-22 22-32

5. Arizona 111 57 54 .514 5.0 30-22 27-32

6. Chicago Cubs 110 56 54 .509 5.5 28-29 28-25

7. Colorado 114 57 57 .500 6.5 38-16 19-41

8. Los Angeles 110 55 55 .500 6.5 29-25 26-30