Glimmers

Ex-White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen put it best during his postgame show yesterday—play the kids. Even when not all of them are. The Sox were sleepwalking through what looked to be their fifth straight loss yesterday against the Rays when pinch-hitter Adam Engel led off with a bloop double that fell in between shortstop Vidal Brujan and leftfielder Randy Arozarena. After the obligatory strikeout by Yasmani Grandal, Danny Mendick collected his second hit of the day to put the Sox on the board. Wait, there’s more. Manager Tony La Russa called on Jake Burger to hit for Reese McGuire, and Burger responded with a two-run homer that travelled some 427 feet to left-center field. Burger isn’t exactly hitting the cover off the ball at .238, but he beat the Cubs on a walk-off single last Sunday and now beat the Rays with his homerun. Those have been the only two Sox wins over the past seven days, by the way. Getting back to Guillen, Engel and Mendick aren’t rookies, but they always hustle; Ozzie noted that with Engel, you’d knew he’d be at second base. Other players, and we won’t name names here, would’ve been jogging out of the box. Burger is a rookie, and as the ever-astute Guillen noted, comes with the promise associated with a first-round draft pick. Too bad that Yoan Moncada continued his death spiral, going 0-for-4, which pushes his BA down to .135, while Grandal’s 0-for-2 with a walk puts him at .160, with a .271 OBP that no longer compensates for the egregious batting average. Leury Garcia went 0-for-4 batting leadoff. He and his .189 BA will be sitting today. The Sox had two runners on with one out in the third when Garcia grounded into a double play. Andrew Vaughn led off the fourth with a single; Moncada followed with a double play. So it goes—glimmers, slumps and gaffes (watch Jose Abreu try to field a grounder cued his way to see what I mean). May the glimmers win out for the rubber game.