Takeout and delivery
WHITE SOX 6, TWINS 2 | Breakup slide, HR by Uribe hands Sox much-needed lift
Welcome to Juan Uribe's wild ride.
When the week began, speculation centered on the White Sox pushing their sometimes-maddening second baseman overboard. By Thursday, he provided the kind of snapshot moment that can turn a season around.
(AP)
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White Sox 6, Twins 2
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Uribe broke up a potential double play by completely taking out Minnesota Twins second baseman Brendan Harris to keep alive a key two-run rally in the eighth inning of the Sox' 6-2 series-clinching victory at U.S. Cellular Field.
''Awesome,'' manager Ozzie Guillen said of Uribe's clean but ferocious slide. ''I was the first one that jumped out of my seat.
''When somebody hits a home run, I just sit there and wait for the guy to shake his hand, unless it's to win the game. But when I see plays like that -- clean, play the game the way they should be playing -- it's something we're missing.''
Keep in mind, the slide came against the Twins, the same team that helped define the Sox' disappointing 2004 season when Torii Hunter obliterated catcher Jamie Burke with a clean hit at the plate. Sox fans booed Hunter, but Guillen applauded the aggressive play.
Call it overdue payback.
''It was great,'' designated hitter Jim Thome said. ''That's baseball. That's how you play the game. Picking up that extra run, you never know. It's huge.
''Juan plays the game hard. As a teammate, you like the way he plays. We all battle out there. It's nice to see him get that big home run, too.''
Uribe's homer came in the fifth, a two-run shot that snapped the Sox' streak of 11 straight solo home runs.
Homers are nice, but that's not Guillen's preferred brand of baseball.
''If we don't do the little things, our offense is going to be a bunch of home runs with nobody on base, and that's what we've been doing lately,'' Guillen said. ''I want people on base. I want us to make it happen when people are on base.''
Funny thing is, a baserunning gaffe Monday in Toronto nearly cost Uribe his job. There was growing speculation after that game, which marked the end of an 0-6 trip, that Uribe would be gone by Tuesday. Remember, Uribe already had gone through waivers in spring training.
But Uribe seems not to notice.
''I feel happy,'' he said. ''I had a good game today. I helped the team by getting one more run.
''Every day I go to the ballpark, I go thinking I am going to help the team and why the team needs me. You control what you can control.''
But he couldn't control teammate Mark Buehrle picking up one of his bats the night before and using it to hammer a dugout space heater.
''It's unbelievable,'' Uribe said. ''I've never seen Buehrle like that. And when I see him doing that with my bat, I say, 'Oh, my God, that's my bat.' I got to the dugout and he said, 'I'm sorry.' I said, 'That's OK.' He's a good person.''
Uribe, who is hitting .191, would seem the player least bothered by a broken bat. If he was hanging by a thread, it was definitely fraying. So his slide Thursday at least bought him a little more time.
''With Uribe, you've got to take advantage of him when he's hot because this kid will take the ugliest swing, the ugliest at-bat,'' Guillen said. ''We've seen that four years, five years, since 2004. You know what you're going to get.
''Sometimes you get upset, you scratch your head, you ask how this kid can play at the big-league level. All of a sudden, a couple days later, he's unbelievable.''
