Setback might knock Dunn out for another week
This is not the time of the season to have setbacks, but the Chicago White Sox had several on Wednesday.
Big picture was the 8-6 loss to Detroit that cut their lead in the AL Central to just a game over the Tigers. Smaller picture, and one that has the potential to cause wide-spread damage over the final two-plus weeks of the season, was another setback for Adam Dunn.
The slugger missed his sixth consecutive game with a strained right oblique, and after taking a few swings before batting practice -- "Anywhere from 10 to 100," a frustrated Dunn couldn't even recall -- he told the media that there's a chance he could be lost for another week with how he felt with a bat in his hand.
"Standing here doing normal stuff kind of feels fine," Dunn said. "Problem is, I have to swing a 34-ounce bat, which is not that bad until you really try to gear up for it and it's just not better yet."
What also became obvious was that Dunn was getting more and more frustrated by the day. He can't try to help an offense that has been struggling for almost two weeks, and he's also watching Detroit continue to have Chicago's number.
"It's terrible," he said. "This is the part of the season where I know everybody's beat up, but this is where you want to be at, September, playing meaningful games. Not being able to do anything, it's awful. I'd rather be out there not doing anything than what I'm doing now because it's terrible."
Dunn missed all three games in Detroit two weeks ago, and the Tigers swept the Sox in that series. He returned to the lineup but re-injured the oblique during the Kansas City series, and he hasn't been back since then.
The Sox had some good feelings Tuesday when Dunn showed up to the park and said the injury felt much better. The verdict was, as long as he passed the swing test Wednesday, he would be back. It was obvious early on with the bat in his hands that he wasn't passing that test.
Wednesday could have been a nice spark for the Sox, with right-hander Gavin Floyd coming off the disabled list after recovering from an elbow injury, and with the hopeful addition of Dunn to the lineup. But it just wasn't to be.
"You just want to make sure they're telling the truth about how they're feeling," manager Robin Ventura said. "We've already gone through that once, with him saying it feels pretty good to pulling it. The mental stuff happens to everybody, so it's no different for him than it's been for Gavin sitting out and not pitching."
