Facing the possibility of being swept for the first time this season, Gavin Floyd, who owned a 10.38 ERA in his previous six starts, threw 6 13 shutout innings to help lead the White Sox to a 7-0 win over the Cubs Wednesday at U.S. Cellular Field. The White Sox salvaged a win in the second leg of the BP Crosstown Cup, but still have lost their last five series.
Floyd's rebound start game at the right time for both him and the White Sox. Not only did the team stay a half-game behind Cleveland, which beat Cincinnati 8-1, but Floyd put together his first quality start in over a month. Before the game, manager Robin Ventura intimated that Floyd's struggles were mainly mental.
"Frustrating is just one of those words that's thrown around, but he's the one that has to go through it," Ventura said. "As a team I think that's part of him pitching, is the pressures of not letting people down and things like that. Those are probably bigger than just the frustrations, is he's trying to do a lot and he just needs to be himself."
That last quality start Floyd threw was on May 11, and since then he allowed at least one home run in every one of his next six starts until Wednesday.
Floyd didn't suffer the same fate Jake Peavy did last night and last week in St. Louis, or the team did Sunday in Los Angeles -- all well-pitched games the White Sox lost. RBI singles by Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko pushed home a pair of runs in the third, and Gordon Beckham added four RBIs, three on a sixth-inning home run, to pace the Sox offense.