The White Sox came into US Cellular field on Saturday needing to bounce back after a heartbreaking loss on Friday. We have been slowly crawling back towards a .500 record and the top of this division. On a night where the bats weren't really there, the Sox needed all the help they could get from their pitching and defense. Brent Lillibridge and John Danks certainly rose the the occasion.
John Danks who recently made a minor change in his mound mechanics has been lights out his last 2 starts (including last night). He went 7.2 innings only giving up 2 runs on 4 hits. He was stellar. John Danks obviously is a better pitcher than his 2-8 record reflects. But it is nice to see him still going out there and absolutely battling every time he has as start. Look for him to start stacking up the wins, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he ended the season with a winning record (Mark my words right now). Anyways, Danks goes 7 and 2 thirds innings and gives way for Jesse Crain who finished off the final inning and a third to nail it down and get the save to give the Sox a 3-2 victory.
Lets talk about the defense real quick. Not the strongest outing all around as the Sox committed two errors, one by Ramirez at short and one by Castro behind the plate. But those errors were erased from our minds when Brent Lillibridge made a game saving, home run robbing snag, going over the wall and bringing a Coco Crisp shot back into the park.
With a man on base for the A's, that ball would have taken the lead away from our Sox and a win away from John Danks. Brent Lillibridge has been playing his way into a starting position. He hustles all the time, he throws the leather, and boy for a little guy, he can really swing. Last night was no different, making a huge play in the field as well as on the base paths, stealing second and advancing to third in the 6th, only to score what turned out to be the winning run on the next play. Brent Lillibridge, this buds for you.
As I stated earlier, the offense struggled a little bit scoring 3 runs on only 6 hits. Out of our 3 runs 2 of them were the results of throwing errors. Ramon Castro led off the 4th inning with a solo home run and that was really it for the offensive fireworks. But we took advantage of mistakes by the other team and thats what great teams do. They find a way to win, which is exactly what the Sox did last night.
We need to keep stacking up wins people, there has been a changing of the guard in the AL Central as the Tigers moved into a first place tie with the Indians last night. I don't mean to say "I told you so" but just as I stated many times earlier this season, the Indians have finally come down to earth and are fading fast. They are 2 and 8 in their last 10 and I suspect they will continue to fade. This race is between 2 teams folks, the White Sox and the Tigers. We need to keep winning, we're almost back to .500 and when that happens this race will really heat up. First things first, we need to take care of business today against Oakland and take 3 of 4 from the A's at home. The key for us to winning this division is going to be to win games at home, our home record going into today (Sunday) is 15 and 17. Thats not good folks, we need to win at home. Its as simple as that, if we can start winning big at home, this team is really going to take off. They have been playing better and better and continue to climb, lets get this one today and go from there.
Today (Sunday) we have Phil Humber on the mound who has been our best starter, first pitch is going to be at 1:10 over on Comcast Sportsnet. Go Sox.
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