Errors by Thomas hurt Sox 2 wayward throws sour first-base experiment in road loss to Royals

Royals 9

White Sox 2

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--The idea was to let Frank Thomas play first baseto provide a distraction to his slow offensive start.

Sunday at Kauffman Stadium, it just became distracting.

Thomas delivered his first home run, but also had two throwingerrors in a 9-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals.

After Friday night's loss to the Royals, manager Jerry Manuel feltplaying Thomas in the field would keep his designated hitter active,ideally getting him to worry less about mechanics at the plate. A 14-0 victory Saturday sure looked good, but all Thomas contributed was abloop single.

The experiment continued for a second day Sunday, but withdisappointing results.

I'm not coming in here expecting to be in there every day, but thelast couple of days he's thrown me in there," Thomas said. [Saturday]it worked to perfection. [Sunday] we got burned."

Thomas' first error came when the Sox had Michael Tucker pickedoff first base. Thomas took a pickoff throw from pitcher ToddRitchie. While trying to get Tucker running to second, Thomas plunkedhim in the shoulder with the throw.

Thomas' second error came when he fielded a sacrifice bunt byDonnie Sadler and flipped the ball past Ray Durham, who was coveringfirst base.

We picked a guy off first and he made a good throw, it justhappened to hit the guy," Manuel said. That's all you can ask for onthat particular play. On the bunt, he probably would have been wiseto let it go foul."

Sadler eventually scored the second run of a six-run seventhinning that put the game out of reach. But since the play was ruled ahit (the error came because Sadler advanced to second), all the runsin the inning were earned.

All six runs in the inning were charged to the bullpen, one toDamaso Marte and five to Antonio Osuna, who faced six batters and gotjust one out. After two successful games by the bullpen, therelievers returned to the form they displayed in Seattle, when theyblew two games and nearly blew a third.

We called down there and [Osuna] mentioned that he was ready, butmaybe he wasn't quite ready to come into the game at that time,"Manuel said. It will take him a while to get used to what he's doingdown there because of the [shoulder] surgery. I think we'll be fine."

Gary Glover allowed one hit in 12/3 innings, but that hit--adouble by Joe Randa--allowed all three of his inherited runners toscore.

We left Glover out there just to get some work to see if he canget his stuff together," Manuel said. He seemed to have a littleexplosion on the ball at the end there so that's a good thing."

The lack of offense and struggles by the bullpen spoiled anotherdecent outing by Ritchie, who allowed three runs and four hits in 52/3 innings. In his Sox debut last week in Seattle, Ritchie yieldedthree runs in six innings, getting a no decision.

Everybody wants to get the win," Ritchie said. Sometimes theydon't work out like you want them to. It's a long season. You have tokeep a good mind-set."

Ritchie has a reason to stay positive. His record is 0-0. Lastseason with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he opened 0-8.

I don't want to go through that again," Ritchie said. It wasn'tfun, but I don't think I'm going to panic. Sometimes you get thebreaks and sometimes you don't. It seems that early in the year, Idon't get the breaks. I don't know what it is."