TORONTO — A night after losing an 11-inning game in which their only runs came via Adam Dunn homers, manager Robin Ventura shuffled the White Sox lineup for Tuesday night’s game against the Blue Jays.
Alejandro De Aza is leading off as usual, but Dewayne Wise will bat second with Alex Rios moving up to third and Adam Dunn dropping one spot to fourth. Kevin Youkilis bats fifth.
The Sox rank third in the major leagues with 146 homers.
“We’ve hit a lot of them and guys might get comfortable trying to do that,” Ventura said. “We need to generate and manufacture some runs to try and win games. It’s too hard to sit there and rely on home runs all the time. It’s a way to get some speed up there with Dewayne and De Aza at the top, and Rios.”
Paul Konerko began doing some baseball activities in Chicago on Tuesday and could return from a concussion as soon as Friday. The absence of the regular cleanup hitter also played a part in the change. Rios has hit fifth all season and moved to fourth when Konerko went out last week.
Ventura downplayed the changes and said the players had little reaction when it was posted. He didn’t see a need to discuss it with any of them beforehand, he said.
“Just a chance to kind of change it a little, we’ll probably go back to what people are used to when Paulie gets back,” Ventura said.
“With Paulie being out you kind of move things around, get Rios up, a little more speed at the top. Let guys run a little bit in front of Rios and Adam and see what happens.”
Wise gives Ventura more speed behind De Aza, whose 0-for-5 Monday exposed a soft spot in the order when the leadoff man doesn’t get on base.
“Yeah, running a little more,” Ventura said. “A lot of things can happen when guys are moving around. It gives us that flexibility.
“You get Dewayne up there, another guy similar to [De Aza]. If DeAza wasn’t getting on you’re not going to steal anything until you get down to Rios. If Rios got on with Adam and Paulie in front of him, he isn’t going anywhere. Now he has the freedom to be able to steal.”
