Contreras injured as White Sox fall

09/23/2006
CHICAGO -- While it seems that most people have buried the White Sox postseason hopes, the Minnesota Twins keep trying to give them a hand out of the grave.
For the second straight night, the Twins lost prior to the end of the White Sox game with the Seattle Mariners.
But the White Sox were unable to make up any ground in the Wild Card race after losing, 11-6, to the Mariners in front of 33,557 at U.S. Cellular Field on Friday.
Chicago remains 5 1/2 games back in the Wild Card, and its elimination number with Minnesota is down to four.
Manager Ozzie Guillen, who was clearly frustrated with Thursday's loss, said he wasn't looking at the Twins game on Friday.
"I don't look at the scoreboard anymore," Guillen said. "I just look in the dugout and try to kick someone's butt. I can't because they are too big for me."
After his team never seemed to have a chance on Thursday, Friday's loss was exasperating in a different way for Guillen. The White Sox battled back in spite of a disastrous six-run second inning, but still saw the team come up short.
Jose Contreras gave up a two-run homer to Richie Sexson to start the second. The Mariners followed that with four singles that led to three more runs.
Then with two outs in the inning, Contreras fell to the ground running to cover first base on what should've been an inning-ending ground ball. Paul Konerko was given an error on his toss to Contreras and another run scored for Seattle, giving it an early 6-1 lead.
Contreras (13-9) left the game with a strained right hamstring after giving up six runs (five earned) on seven hits in 1 2/3 innings.
Sexson added his second homer of the game and 31st of the year to make it 7-2 in the top of the third.
But unlike Thursday night, the White Sox battled back. Juan Uribe hit a two-run homer, his 20th, in the bottom of the fourth. Then in the fifth, Jermaine Dye hit an RBI single and Paul Konerko hit an RBI double to cut the lead to 7-6.
"You know, six runs in the second inning don't help, but we never give up," Guillen said. "We just keep coming back. We played a better game. In the end, we have a shot, but we give it away."
Ben Broussard tacked on a run for Seattle with two outs in the sixth when he doubled home Kenji Johjima, who was hit by a pitch.
Jose Lopez drove in two more runs with two outs in the top of the eighth to make it 10-6. Johjima scored one of the runs after reaching on a fielder's choice and Sexson scored the other after reaching on an intentional walk.
Guillen used six pitchers out of the bullpen, who combined to give up five earned runs on nine hits and six walks.
"It's to the point where I don't want to go back to the mound," Guillen said. "I don't want to feel embarrassed. Every time I go back and forth, I hear the boos.
"We have to get better," he added. "We are not overusing anybody. We try to give everyone the best opportunity we can where the matchups are fine. They score late in the game and that gives us less chance to win those games. The bullpen has to shape up and start to throw the ball better."
But if the bullpen does shape up over the last eight games, it's hard to imagine that the White Sox will be able to make up 5 1/2 games with Minnesota.
Right now for the players, it's difficult to look at the opening the Twins have given them the last two nights.
"It's tough," reliever Brandon McCarthy said. "It's kind of what our whole season has boiled down to. We've played well in stretches, but it seems like one of those years where any time you need to kick it into another gear and win games that need to be won with other teams not playing well, we haven't been able to do it. ... It's just one of those years where things aren't going your way and it's just an uphill climb."

Source: http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/