I was in attendance yet again for Thursday nights game..... Shout-out to my good buddy Andy Pajak for acquiring awesome seats at an awesome price for the game (as seen below).
It was great to see a lot of offensive production, Alexi had a big double, Dunn knocked in a couple, and Paulie had a nice 2 RBI single. This offensive explosion was capped off by a line drive home run by Carlos Quentin in the 5th.
Gavin Floyd had a nice outing, going 7 innings, only giving up 1 run (in the 1st) on 5 hits. He was the winning pitcher in this one. The bullpen came in and did their job, the only blemish on the bullpen's stat sheet tonight was a solo home run given up by Tony Pena in the 9th.
The White Sox defensive effort was a good one. They did commit 1 error, although it was on a tough attempt at a 6-4 double play (line out to short, throw to first) . Those types of errors are going to happen. Our struggle with errors this season has been minimizing silly mistakes and booting routine plays (which the defense has greatly improved on as of late). Defensive highlights for the Sox included a nice diving play by Alexi and a smooth 4-6-3 double play in the top of the 5th.
Now normally I won't do this, but a defensive highlight from the Indians tonight, was an unreal 1-6-4-3 double play. Thats the pitcher, to the shortstop, to the second basemen, to the first basemen. What happened was, there was a liner up the middle, deflected by the pitcher Joe Smith, away from Cabrera at short, who stops his momentum and bare-hands it and in one motion flips it behind his back to Everett for the force at second who throws it on to LaPorta at first. Just an unreal play. Folks, I was at the game tonight, and I gave Cabrera a standing ovation for that one. Truly a must see play.
(see here: http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_05_19_clemlb_chamlb_1&highlight_content_id=14977435&c_id=cle)
This was a huge win for the Sox, for the following reasons:
-Divisional game (swept division leaders)
-Series win (the series victories are starting to stack up)
-Only 5 under .500 now
-Improving the home record and home confidence (as they're home record has been bad so far)
-The offense broke out
We're starting to finally see this team playing to its potential. The offense is coming around, and as I've been saying, couple that with the pitching and defense we've been getting and this team is going to go places. I am really starting to get excited about this team, because as I've been saying, they have too much talent to not be a contender in this division. I think this is the beginning of the end of the Indians fantasy run. I think the team the Sox really have to look out for and worry about keeping up with are the Detroit Tigers. BUT, first, lets get back to .500. Thats our only goal, our only priority right now, get back to even. Once we do that, then we focus on the division.
Tomorrow we have our first inter-league game as the Dodgers come to town. Anyone wanting to get nostalgic can reference the 1959 World Series. First pitch is at 7:10 as Hawk and the Stone Pony will have that one for you over on Comcast Sportsnet. Hopefully the Sox can continue their dominance against the NL this year and continue to climb the ladder.
Finally, some food for thought: Will the Sox be over .500 by June 15?
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That error from Alexei was probably greatly influenced by the fact he took a fastball off his right hand in his previous at bat. But you're right, it was a very well played game in all aspects. I was especially pleased with the fact that Floyd settled down after giving up that run in the 1st. In years past he usually would not be able to do that. As a matter of fact, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the start he's off to. Normally at this time, his era is somewhere between 5 and 7. Much better start to the season for him this year. Interleague play is where we really make our move, just like last year.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree Mark. Hes had a terrific start (especially compared to years past) and yea, Interleague is usually very good to the White Sox. And yea, that error Alexi made, like I said, those are gonna happen, not an easy throw to make, especially with the runner in the path of the throw. I've just been happy to see them cutting down on the errors during routine plays. You can just see them coming out of their funk. Im excited.
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