Oaktown shutdown

You would have thought it was David Beckham appearing at The Cell yesterday, the way people were screaming when Gordon Beckham ran on the field and later came to bat for the White Sox. Rookie-in-a-rush Beckham didn't do much of anything (0-3) against the Oakland A's, not even really getting much chance to show his fielding chops at third base, but neither did the Sox offense, which has a problem playing against rookies.

For the third straight time they lost to a rookie pitcher from lowly Oakland, and for an unbelievable 8th time this season, the Sox were shut out, this time 7-0. The only thing more cringing than Ozzie's order to walk a man to put two runners on so that Mark Buerhle could face a guy (Jason Giambi) who is hitting .400-plus against him for his career (Giambi responded to the challenge with a 3-run homer), was the offense's ability to waste a number of hits, including 2 each from Alexei Ramirez and Paul Konerko.

There is something about Oakland yearly commitment to green arms lulls some teams to sleeo at the plate, though usually the napping occurs in Oakland's capacious home park, not homer-friendly U.S. Cellular Field.

The Sox continue to have line-up gaps in particular at 2B and 3B. In the last three losses to Oakland, those positions collectively went 4-18 (2-12 in the last two losses). We'll see if Beckham can help rectify the situation, one that Chris Getz, Josh Fields, Wilson Betemit,Jayson Nix, Brent Lillibridge and even DeWayne Wise have been unable solve.