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White Sox notebook, 9/5
Right-hander Axelrod joins White Sox bullpen
By Jordan Schelling / MLB.com
Axelrod, 26, made 26 appearances (24 starts) between Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte this season, going 9-3 with a 2.69 ERA. He allowed 45 earned runs over 150 2/3 innings.
Signed by the White Sox as a free agent on Aug. 2, 2009, Axelrod was named to the Southern League midseason All-Star team after going 3-2 with a 3.34 ERA with the Barons. Axelrod was even better for the Knights, posting a 6-1 record with a 2.27 ERA in 15 starts.
Pena has been on the 15-day DL since May 29 with right elbow tendinitis. In 17 relief appearances before going on the DL, Pena went 1-1 with a 6.20 ERA, allowing 14 earned runs in 20 1/3 innings of work.
Struggling Dunn gets rare start in opener
MINNEAPOLIS — For just the third time in nine games, designated hitter Adam Dunn was in the White Sox lineup for Game 1 of Monday’s doubleheader.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said it was a product of the doubleheader and the need for everyone to play, as well as to “see what we can get out of him.”
“Hopefully, he’ll come out and help the ballclub to win the game,” Guillen said.
Dunn has struggled throughout his disappointing season, batting just .163 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs entering Monday. Over the last two years with the Nationals, Dunn hit 76 home runs while driving in 208 runs, and his batting average was 100 points higher.
White Sox center fielder Alex Rios also has struggled, batting .220 with eight home runs and 34 RBIs entering Monday. Rios’ numbers are down from 2010, when he batted .284 with 21 homers and 88 RBIs.
Guillen said he believed Dunn and Rios owed it to themselves to do whatever is needed in the offseason to improve in 2012.
“Everybody learns by mistakes,” Guillen said. “In the offseason, when you get older, you’ve got to work a little bit more, a little bit harder to try to get better.
“I don’t think they should feel guilty about how much money they made without contributing. They want to, they were ready. But I think when the years go by and you’re getting older, you have to take care of yourself a lot better.”
Guillen also was asked if he thought the respective performances of Dunn and Rios were “embarrassing enough” for them to put in the extra work needed to improve next season.
While he could not answer for how Dunn or Rios felt, Guillen made it clear how he felt.
“They should be embarrassed,” Guillen said. “I think they feel bad about the way they played this year.”
In the 2-1 Game 1 victory, Dunn went 0-for-3 with a strikeout. Rios went 3-for-5 with two runs scored in the 4-0 victory in Game 2.
Guillen attributes struggles to poor start
MINNEAPOLIS — Manager Ozzie Guillen attributed his team’s struggles this season to its poor start, when the White Sox dropped to 11 games under .500 in early May.
After a loss on May 6, the White Sox were 11-22 and sat in last place in the American League Central, 11 games behind first-place Cleveland.
So what can the White Sox do next season to improve in the first month?
“I guess, talk to the Commissioner and say, ‘The White Sox are not going to show up in April,'” Guillen joked. “In the past, I feel like we might not play enough guys [in Spring Training]. Now we did it opposite, but we didn’t play good in Spring Training either.”
The White Sox went 11-20 this spring, finishing 14th out of 15 teams in Cactus League play. They also had the worst record of an AL team in Spring Training.
But Guillen said he does not plan to change much next year.
“I will do the same stuff,” he said. “I think everybody was fine, because I think everybody liked it. Everybody was ready to go.”
White Sox not concerned with short turnaround
MINNEAPOLIS — With their series finale Sunday in Detroit moved to a night game, the White Sox had a quick turnaround going into Monday’s doubleheader against the Twins.
They arrived in the Twin Cities in the early-morning hours, less than 12 hours before the scheduled start of Game 1 at Target Field. Even with the short night, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was not worried about his team going into the twin bill.
“Most of the players, they have a lot of short nights,” Guillen said. “I think everybody should be fine. And I expect them to go out there and play the game.”
Jordan Schelling is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
White Sox notebook, 8/7
Stance adjustment pays off for Rios
By Jordan Schelling / MLB.com
Instead of holding the bat more vertically, Rios moved it down to rest on his shoulder until the pitcher began his delivery. While one game is not enough to say if the change made the difference, Rios had his best game at the plate since late June, when he went 3-for-4 against the Nationals.
“I hope he keeps swinging the bat like that, we need it,” said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. “I don’t know what he did, I never asked him what he did. I told him the other day to raise himself up. I don’t know if it was that, but the last couple days, he’s swung the bat better.”
Rios continued to produce in Sunday’s 7-0 victory, going 2-for-4 with a double, homer and two RBIs.
Struggling Dunn sits against Twins lefty
MINNEAPOLIS — With the Twins starting lefty Brian Duensing on Sunday, White Sox designated Adam Dunn got a day off, his first in two weeks. Manager Ozzie Guillen said he may give Dunn another day off later on the road trip as well.
After picking up a few hits against the Yankees, Dunn went 0-for-7 in the first two games of the series against the Twins, with two walks, three strikeouts and a run scored.
“He’s struggling so much right now. Hopefully, with a little break we give him, we can get something better out of him,” Guillen said. “He was swinging the bat a little bit better in Chicago, but the last couple days he lost it.”
Dunn has just 54 hits in 331 at-bats and a .163 average to go along with a .294 on-base percentage, and he’s slugging just .302. His struggles drew national attention on Thursday when Stephen Colbert joked about Dunn threatening Bill Bergen’s record-low batting average of .139.
While his continued struggles could likely be affecting Dunn’s confidence at the plate, which would only compound the issue, Guillen thinks it’s more frustrating than anything for Dunn right now.
“I think mentally, he should be very exhausted,” Guillen said. “He’s missing pitches. He’s missing fastballs, he’s missing changeups, he’s missing breaking balls, guessing wrong pitches. Everything has piled up, one thing after another.”
With two months left in the season, it’s unlikely Dunn will be able to improve his poor offensive numbers. But Guillen hopes that Dunn will learn from this season and come back better prepared and in better shape for the 2012 season.
“He has to stay in shape now, he’s not 22 years old anymore,” Guillen said. “Now he has to learn that he has to prepare himself better. That happens to everyone. That happened to [Paul Konerko], that happened to [Mark] Buehrle.”
Brent Lillibridge started at first base in Sunday’s 7-0 victory and went 2-for-4 with a homer, his second in two games.
Stewart an option for rotation, bullpen
MINNEAPOLIS — Ozzie Guillen has not decided yet, but the White Sox manager said he’s leaning toward giving Zach Stewart another before putting him in the bullpen.
Stewart would likely pitch on Friday, if he did start again, but he could be needed out of the bullpen before then, which would be the most likely thing keeping Stewart from making a second start.
“I’m thinking, personally, we should keep him and give those guys six days,” Guillen said. “I don’t know yet, but … I have to know in the next couple days because I have to know exactly who I’m going to have in the bullpen and how I’m going to use them.”
Stewart allowed just one run on eight hits over 6 1/3 innings Saturday night in in a 6-1 victory to pick up his first Major League win.
While it remains a possibility that Stewart could start against the Royals, the right-hander would not start again the next time through the rotation, because the White Sox have off-days on Aug. 15 and Aug. 22, and using a six-man rotation through that stretch would give everyone too much time between starts.
Guillen said he would talk to White Sox general manager Ken Williams before making a decision on when Stewart would pitch next.
Jordan Schelling is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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