Sox Wave Goodbye to West Coast Woes with Win

Let me just start out by saying that I love watching Omar Vizquel play the game of baseball. The man is 44 years old and is more reliable than most guys on this team. He was 2-3 again today with a run scored and a huge sac bunt. Basically, he was doing it all. Anyways, the Sox went into the rubber match of this 3 game series in Oakland, looking to take their 3rd consecutive series (all on the West Coast). To be honest, I had low expectations for Sunday's game, as Cahill (A's starting pitcher) has been very tough this season and Buerhle has always struggled in Oakland. Ramirez drew first blood with a line drive homerun in the 4th, kicking off what proved to be a great day at the plate for him. Oakland answered back in the 5th, not to be out done, the Sox answered back in the 6th with a sacrifice missile to center field off the bat of Quentin.

Turning point in this game was the 7th. Rios leads it off with a double down the left field line. Here’s where momentum and a little bit of luck shifts towards the Sox. Omar lays down a nice sacrifice bunt, Cahill off the mound, fields it and throws it down the right field line, allowing Rios to score and Omar to go into second. Beckham then sacrifices Omar to third to set up a struggling Pierre (to fail once again). Pierre fails to lay down a squeeze bunt... TWICE... once to go with him being picked off of first base in the 1st inning and once to go with his Carl Winslow mustache... 

Anyway, Pierre grounds out after an awful showing at the plate, to set up Alexi to knock in Omar and what would prove to be the winning run. 

Offensive line highlights:

- Alexi, 3-4 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBIs (one being the game winner)

- Konerko, 2-4 (he's been doing it all, hitting to all fields, he’s hitting .327 folks)

- Vizquel, 2-4 one run scored and a sacrifice (proving, once again, age is just a number)

Lets talk about pitching and defense here real quick. The big story was Mark Buerhle. Usually terrible in Oakland, really stepped up for us today. He didn't have his great stuff, falling behind in counts early in the game, but he settled in as the game went on, shutting out the A's until the 6th inning. The line on Mark, 6.1 innings pitched, 3 earned runs, 6 K's and 3 walks. He battled out there.

The bullpen stepped up big for us once again. Crain came in for Buerhle in the 7th, had a little bit of a rocky start, but had good damage control as he inherited Buerhle's base runners. Thornton looked good again (which is a great sign for us) and Santo's, proving even further he is our closer, came in, walked the lead off man, but pitched over that walk, closing the door and setting a W in stone for the Sox. The bullpen looked solid, Sox fans, that is a great sign for us; the bullpen is going to be a HUGE factor in our success this season. They have been proving lately that their early season struggles were a fluke (just as this White Sox optimist has been saying all along).

Finally, a quick note on the defense. No errors again today, capped off by a great 4-3 unassisted double play turned by my man, Gordon Beckham. Took a rocket, in between hop up the middle on the backhand, ran and touched second and fired a bullet to Dunn at first. Beautiful. The defense has really been coming around as well, which is also a nice sign for us because we do have a solid defensive club.

Well to wrap up the West Coast trip, I would say it was a pleasant surprise (understatement of the month). Going out there, with the way we were playing combined with our West Coast history, I thought this road trip might burry this club. They proved me wrong. They won all 3 series, 2 of those wins were come from behind wins in the late innings and a lot of them were close. 

What does this tell us? Southsiders, it confirms what I have been saying this entire season: this team is coming around. The bullpen has been lights out, the defense has been solid, and the bats are waking up. The great news is, they still aren't quite playing to their potential, which means we still have a lot more in store for us. Now that the West Coast trip is over and we're approaching divisional/interleague play and our home stands are becoming more frequent, this team is really going to show you a lot. That is what I have been saying all year and I am anxious for them to break out. Its close friends, it really is. We have A LOT of baseball ahead of us, just keep an eye on the little things the Sox have been improving on, because those add up and become big things.

Now we come home for 2 with Texas and 2 with the division leading Indians and 3 with the Dodgers. We need to capitalize on this home stand. First, lets take care of the AL Champion Rangers tomorrow. We have Edwin Jackson on the bump and that game is going to be over on Comcast Sportsnet with the first pitch at 7:10. My beautiful girlfriend and I will be in attendance at this game and I will do all I can to bring home that W.

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