No Angola jokes.
Now that it`s over for the White Sox, maybe the first order of business should be finding a contender worthy of Charlie Hough.
Then a place where the pressure`s off Bobby Thigpen.
The Sox moped through a 15-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers Sunday afternoon in front of 48,129 folks in County Stadium. What the Twins and A`s did is no longer relevant.
Many in the crowd were Sox fans. That wasn`t really clear until Thigpen was yanked by manager Gene Lamont after walking in a run in the eighth inning. You know the rest.
It was, incidentally, an eight-run eighth inning. Six of the runs were charged to Thigpen, though three of those six, and two of his own, were ushered in by Scott Radinsky.
The Sox offense, such as it was, got four hits off Bill Wegman (9-7) in eight innings. Two were by Frank Thomas, including his 15th homer. Wegman, in July, had won one of five starts and given up 47 hits in 38 1/3 innings.
Robin Ventura homered off Jesse Orosco in the ninth with a man on.
Enough good news. It says at the top of this page that it`s July 27. The standings complete the story.
Lamont, not a dreamer, came as close to a concession speech Sunday as is permissible under Sec. 11.05 of the Official Major League Manager`s Don`t Kill the Walk-Up Sale Handbook.
”You`ve got to be realistic,” Lamont said. ”We`ve got to play Oakland very tough, we`ve got to play Minnesota tough, and we`ve got to put a long streak together.
”I don`t mean win four, lose one, win four,” Lamont said. ”A 10-, 11-game winning streak. That`s the only way we can get back in the race.”
And that`s not going to happen until Kirk McCaskill (6-8) gets his head together. Or whatever it is that isn`t.
Once again Sunday, he showed flashes of excellence and flashes that something was wrong.
Jackie Brown, the pitching coach, doubts the something is physical.
”I don`t see that,” Brown said. ”He`s had the back problem, but that comes and goes. He says there`s no pain.”
That leaves something else.
”I just think it`s confidence, more than anything,” Brown said. ”And he`s trying to prove his worth. I told him today, `You`ve either got to go out there and start having fun or really get mad. One of the two.` ”
Based on the results, it was none of the above. When he left after 4 2/3 innings, the Brewers led 7-0.
The homer by Thomas in the sixth made it 7-2, and relief by Wilson Alvarez and Roberto Hernandez kept it that way until Thigpen started the eighth.
It was Thigpen`s first appearance since July 20, which was another disaster. Lamont gave him a couple of days off to save him from the wrath of local hooligans, another two to eliminate some back stiffness and one more because Hough deserved a chance to blow his own game.
Sunday, Thigpen gave up a single to Robin Yount, a homer to Darryl Hamilton (Hamilton`s first in exactly two months), a double to Greg Vaughn and three walks.
His earned-run average, 3.38 at game time, is now 4.72.
Lamont`s team, it should be noted, has rarely looked flat this season. Frustrated, certainly, and maybe a little angry, but never quite the way it looked Sunday.
Lamont saw it.
”I didn`t think so to begin with,” Lamont said. ”You watch every day, and you can kind of get a feel when guys come in a little flat. I didn`t see that.
”But after a tough loss last night and they jumped on us right away . . . I didn`t think the effort was lacking. It`s just that when they score a lot of runs, it`s tough.”
It`s going to be tough to win a bunch of games in a row. And it`s not just McCaskill or Thigpen or Radinsky or Lamont.
It was supposed to happen for the White Sox in 1992, and everyone kept waiting for it to happen, and it didn`t happen.
The numbers say it`s still possible.
Numbers lie.
