CHICAGO – An angry Ozzie Guillen watched his team waste an opportunity to gain ground in their increasingly futile bid for the AL wild-card berth.
The defending World Series champions lost for the sixth time in seven games, the latest defeat 9-0 to the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night.
“Right now I feel embarrassed. My team should feel embarrassed. People are paying to watch us play and that was pathetic,” Guillen said. “If we keep playing like that they better start packing today.”
Chicago has lost six of seven and has just about run out of time, with only nine games remaining. The White Sox are six games behind first-place Detroit in the AL Central, and 51/2 games behind Minnesota in the wild-card race. The Tigers and Twins both lost Thursday.
Raul Ibanez drove in three runs and Adrian Beltre hit a ninth-inning grand slam for Seattle, but the White Sox had two key errors, including a play in the eighth where Guillen thought first baseman Paul Konerko deserved a second error.
Chicago catcher A.J. Pierzynski said a team meeting isn’t necessary after Thursday’s performance.
“What is going to be said now? We pretty much know where we stand. Let’s be honest, there is nothing that can be said that we don’t know,” he said. “You can have all the meetings you want. It doesn’t matter. Your six out with nine to play, chances aren’t so good, let’s be honest.”
Seattle’s Jake Woods (6-3) allowed five hits over seven innings in his sixth start of the season. Joel Pineiro finished with perfect relief.
“I’m definitely happy with the way I threw,” Woods said. “You can’t complain with seven innings and no runs and on my part no walks which has been a big problem for me lately.”
Javier Vazquez (11-10) struck out 12 in 71/3 innings but allowed five runs – three earned – and seven hits. Vazquez is 0-4 in eight starts since beating the New York Yankees on Aug. 2, matching the longest winless streak of his career, yet he has a 2.93 ERA in his last six starts, going 0-2 in that span.
“It’s a shame to see him pitch the way he pitched and we don’t do anything right,” Guillen said. “The way we played today was real pathetic.”
Chicago was 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, and shortstop Juan Uribe made a key error in the second inning.
With runners on first and second and two outs, Chris Snelling hit a popup that became difficult because of a gust of wind. Uribe failed to make the catch, appearing to get distracted by third baseman Joe Crede, and Richie Sexson scored from second for a 1-0 lead.
Ibanez hit his 29th homer – and 1,000th hit – in the seventh, and Konerko’s throwing error led to a three-run eighth.
With a runner on first, Ichiro Suzuki grounded to Konerko, who made a wide throw to second that pulled Uribe off the bag. Beltre singled to load the bases then Kenji Johjima forced in a run when he walked with a 3-2 count. Ibanez then hit a two-run single off Neal Cotts that went by Konerko.
“That should be an error not a base hit,” Guillen said. “I don’t know if (official scorer Bob Rosenberg) is getting old or watching stupid games, I don’t know what he is doing.”
The grand slam was the seventh of Beltre’s career and his first since Aug. 17, 2005, against Kansas City.
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