Chicago’s Durham Passes Out

Ray Durham took a few awkward steps and collapsed, falling face first onto the artificial turf. What followed were some of the most scary moments in this very memorable season for the Chicago White Sox.

The All-Star second baseman lay unconscious momentarily at the Metrodome in Minneapolis as his teammates, trainer Herm Schneider, Manager Jerry Manuel and a Twin team doctor went quickly to his side Friday night.

Not until after the White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-4, did they know Durham was OK.

Durham was carted off the field and taken to a hospital, where X-rays and a CT scan were normal, Schneider said. The diagnosis was bruised ribs from a head-first home plate slide and collision with Twins catcher A.J. Pierzynski minutes before his collapse.

After returning to the clubhouse following the game, Chicago’s leadoff hitter sat on a training room table, still looking woozy.

“I don’t know what I did. I’m all right now, I’m just a little sore,” he said, adding he’ll need a few days to get right again. “All that is sore is my ribs. Everything else is OK.”

Durham wasn’t sure what happened.

“For a moment there I was kind of out of it,” he said. “I was talking and they kept talking to me and asking me questions. Good thing I answered the questions right.”

In the top of the third, Durham slid head-first into the plate to score a run. Back on the bench, he rubbed his midsection.

In the bottom half, Durham had taken warmups--he had just thrown a ball over Paul Konerko’s head at first base--when he took a few steps toward the White Sox dugout on the first-base side.

“I was running off the field and I just felt like I had heavy legs. It’s happened before, but it was a long time ago,” Durham said.

Said Manuel: “He’s fine. They couldn’t find anything wrong with him. He just happened to get dizzy. They did everything they could to check him out.”

Detroit 9, New York 6--Hideo Nomo (8-11) matched his season high with nine strikeouts and Deivi Cruz drove in three runs at New York as the Tigers handed the Yankees their sixth loss in a row.

Paul O’Neill, returning to the Yankee lineup after a week off to rest his injured right hip, went 0 for four with four strikeouts and a sacrifice fly. Tino Martinez also was 0 for four, leaving his hitless streak at a career-high 28 at-bats.

On Sept. 13, New York held a nine-game lead in the AL East, the division race seemingly over. But the Yankees have lost eight of nine since then, getting outscored 69-25.

Tampa Bay 3, Toronto 2--The Devil Rays ended their 10-game losing streak--the longest in the AL this season--as Greg Vaughn hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning at Toronto.

Baltimore 3, Boston 1--Sidney Ponson (9-12) pitched a four-hitter and Greg Myers hit a two-run homer off Ramon Martinez (10-8) at Boston as the Orioles sent the Red Sox five games back in the wild-card chase.

Kansas City 3, Cleveland 2--Gregg Zaun hit a solo homer with two outs in the eighth inning at Kansas City, giving the Royals a win in a game delayed 1 hour 50 minutes by rain in the third inning.

Ricky Bottalico (8-6), Kansas City’s fourth pitcher, earned the win with two innings of relief.