White Sox Win for 11th Time in Last 12 Games

The batter is the enemy. That’s what Chicago manager Jeff Torborg told Greg Hibbard.

“Be mean and be aggressive,” Torborg said to his pitcher, “and quit going out to the mound and treating the opposing players as if they’re your best friends.”

Hibbard allowed three hits in 6 2/3 innings Wednesday as the Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 5-3 for their 11th victory in 12 games.

“The one thing you can’t do when you get up here is to be intimidated by the play at the big-league level,” Torborg said. “He’s got big-league stuff, but sometimes you get banged around as he has. And, with the kind of stuff he has, the defense occasionally has to be set because he throws a lot of ground balls.”

Hibbard struck out five and walked one against Seattle.

“They told me to change my attitude and be mean,” he said. “Not mean where I look mean, but just inside. Because those guys are trying to hurt me. And I have to try and go out there to hurt them.”

Shawn Hillegas allowed two runs in two-thirds of an inning and Bobby Thigpen got five outs for his 21st save.

Bill Swift, 6-3, lost his fifth consecutive decision against Chicago since Oct. 3, 1985, giving up six hits and three runs in six innings. He will be sent back to the bullpen.

“Let’s face it, the White Sox did a great job against us and were swept by a red-hot team,” Mariners manager Jim Lefebvre said. “My guys may have been looking ahead to playing 14 straight games in California.”

Chicago won its 11th straight in Comiskey Park. The game was delayed twice by rain for a total of 2 hours, 9 minutes.

“This is the kind of a series you walk away shaking your head because you feel you let three games get away,” Lefebvre said.

Chicago scored two runs in the second. Ivan Calderon and Dan Pasqua hit consecutive singles and Calderon scored when second baseman Harold Reynolds threw Daryl Boston’s grounder into center field. Fred Manrique followed with a run-scoring groundout.

Ozzie Guillen, who extending his hitting streak to 16 games, hit RBI singles in the seventh and eighth for a 4-0 lead. His hitting streak is one short of the American League season high set by New York’s Don Mattingly.

Alvin Davis hit a two-run home run in the eighth off Shawn Hillegas, his ninth homer, and Scott Bradley’s RBI double pulled Seattle to within 4-3. Harold Baines led off with his 13th home run.