Chest Pains in Texas

I'll try to keep this one short and emotionless, because I am not happy right now. The Sox needed this one today. They didn't get it, due to the offense and their inability to get ANY timely hitting. Now I am an absolute optimist when it comes to the Sox, but I'm also emotionally attached, every loss hurts, but this one today really killed me. We hit into 3 double plays and strand the entire state population of Rhode Island on the bases. We needed this series and what really gets me, is we played well enough to win today, in terms of base runners and pitching. Poor Gavin Floyd.... my God, he goes 7 innings and gives up 1 earned run and 3 hits.... and gets the loss? Excuse me while I go throw up....

I mean in the last 3 innings alone we left like 6 or 7 guys on base! It's like, "Hang on Ozzie, I'm getting on a plane to Texas right now, I'll come hit for ya." I mean how long can this inconsistency continue with this offense? It is way to talented to leave guys on base like this. What really kills me is the importance of this road trip and the fact that we should be 2-1. 

The 8th inning we have 1st and 3rd with 1 out and Dunn strikes out (thats new) and Pierre grounds out. We get nothing. 

Now, I wanna talk about something that really, really got on my nerves. My buddy Alexi Ramirez leading off the 9th. Lets break down the situation....

9th inning factors:

- Down 1 run (so we need base runners at all costs)

- Heart of the order

- The pitcher they bring in has control issues

- The pitcher they bring in has walked 12 in his 15 innings of work....

.... Put that all together and what does baseball for Dummies tell us? TAKE SOME PITCHES!!!!! WORK THE COUNT IN YOUR FAVOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Instead Einstein... pardon me... Alexi swings at the first pitch OF THE INNING! And flies out to center. We're already working up hill because we're down a run, now we're down an out after one pitch!! Think thats a stupid point for me to make? Well the pitcher went on to walk the next 2 batters on 9 pitches.... Imagine if Alexi would have just taken a few pitches, might have had an extra out and an extra baserunner. 

This offense is just knocking days and hours off of my life, every time they have a good game (last night) they come back and look like they've never picked up a bat before. The only way the Sox are getting back into this is if they stack up win streaks (big or small) and its hard to win when your offense strands Will County on the bases. I'm sorry if this has been an uncharacteristically bleak post, this game today just really bothered me. We just had so many chances, again Floyd and the bullpen do their job perfectly, and the offense just stomps all over our hopes and dreams. I've just never seen such a stacked offense stall like this. And the double plays? Good Lord, I started thinking, yea theres 1 out and a guy on first, we might as well just sac bunt and take our chances getting a base hit with 2 outs, at least we'd stay out of the double play (obviously thats exaggerated, but the double plays are really getting old). Its too bad that we don't get runs for double plays hit into, we'd be unstoppable. 

Again, its early in the year still, we're within striking distance of .500 and the division, and our schedule gets really easy pretty soon. Everything is going to be there for the taking, it's just up to the Sox to take it. 

My girlfriend just walked out of the room and she says, "Do you want anything?" (meaning to drink or eat)  And I responded with, "Timely hitting." This one is gonna be on my mind for a while....

Something to look out for an think about while we're in Canada:

- Take note on how many times the Blue Jays "fans" boo Alex Rios when he bats.....
Even though he gave them a lot of solid years and the Blue Jays were the ones who released him....

Lets bounce back again tomorrow and string some wins together. Sorry if I was negative, even the most optimistic fans have a breaking point sometimes. Go Sox. Everything will look better tomorrow after a big win over the Blue Jays.

Mother Nature Provides the Lightning and Quentin Provides the Thunder

The Sox went into Tuesday's game after a tough loss on Monday, needing a win. Thanks to Carlos Quentin, they were able to get that win. Quentin started the scoring off in the first inning with a solo home run to left field to put the Sox up 1-0. The Rangers answered right back with a run in the bottom half tying the game. Then it was Quentin again in the 3rd inning hitting an absolute bomb to right field displaying his power to all parts of the park with his second homer of the night. This put the Sox up 4-1. The Rangers answered back in the bottom half with a run, making the score 4-2 in favor of the White Sox where the score would stay for the next 3 hours.

Jake Peavy got the start and only lasted 3 innings.... not because he pitched poorly, but because mother nature had other plans. At the start of the 4th inning a nasty storm blew through Texas, forcing the Ranger's stadium personnel to evacuate all of the stands through the dugouts and into the clubhouses and tunnels underneath the ballpark. What followed was a doomsday type storm, showcasing huge hail, tornado type winds, thunder, lightning, and heavy rain. The rain delay lasted 2 hours and 58 minutes, finally allowing the Sox to continue to the game.

Out of the delay the Rangers would waste no time putting up 2 quick runs in the 5th only to be countered by a BOMB into the second deck by "The Grand Canyon" Adam Dunn. Which was then followed by a single by AJ, a sac bunt from Beckham and a RBI single by Brent Morel to make it a 6-4 Sox lead. Not to be out done the Rangers hit back in the bottom half again with an RBI single by Moreland to make it a 6-5 game. The Sox came out swinging in the top of the 7th putting another run on the board to make it 7-5, (seeing a pattern here)? Texas would put another one up in the 8th to make it 7-6 and with men on base, Ozzie would go to Sergio Santos for the 4 out save. He came in and shut it down in the 8th, just edging his way out of the jam he inherited (courtesy of Matt Thornton). The Sox tack on an insurance run in the 9th on Carlos Quentin's 3rd homer of the game to deep left field. Santos comes on in the bottom half and nails it down giving the Sox a huge victory.

This was a wild one in Texas on Tuesday, this game featured 3 home runs from one player, a 3 hour rain delay that cleared the stadium, and back and forth scoring right out of the rain delay for 2 straight innings. It was like watching a prize fight, two parties just exchanging blows back and forth until one came out on top, and lucky for us, it was our Sox. It was nice to see the team bounce back once again from a frustrating loss on Monday as well as keeping their focus through a 3 hour delay. The Sox need to come out of this road trip in the green, what I mean is, we need to have a winning road trip, its a tough one indeed, but we HAVE to take these series. If we can win each series on this trip (a tall order I know) we will come back to Chicago at the end of May at .500. That would be HUGE for this club

Ok, so real quick I just wanna break down each one of Quentin's homers, just because you'll be able to see just how dialed in he was, because he took 3 different pitches, adjusted to each, and went with each pitch, thats how you know a guy is dialed in.

Ok, so this is the first home run of the night. Now this is a breaking ball that hangs inside. Look at the balance he has here, he stayed back perfectly, he opens up his hips to get around because its inside, arms are extended to the ball (this is what you call "staying inside the ball) and my favorite thing, his head, perfectly down on the ball. He takes this one right down the left field line, keeping it fair all the way into the stands and rounds the bases.

Love this one, its his second home run on the night and this time its a fastball on the outside corner. But again, look at the balance. Stays back, gets his arms extended with his head down again and just goes with the pitch. What you gotta love about this one is notice how he didn't try pulling the ball, had he done that, it would have been an out to the left side, probably a ground out. Instead he takes what the pitcher gives him, keeps his weight back and just drills it, this time right down the right field line. Perfect.

This is his 3rd homer of the evening. Now this is just a hanging breaking ball, right over the plate. Again, picks up the spin, stays back on it and with his head down on the ball, shifts his weight and absolutely kills it to left center.

I really wanted to compare these 3 at bats because not only were they all homers, but each pitch was on a different part of the plate. You had the inside hanger, the outside fastball, and the slider right down broadway. And when you put them next to each other, you can really see 3 different adjustments to these 3 different pitches. When a guy can adjust like this and not miss on any of them, you know he's seeing the ball well.

The Sox need to keep this winning stuff alive. Im actually watching game 3 of this series as I write this and its not looking good. Our offense is stalling again. Lets hope we can get something going because we need to keep stacking up series victories. The Indians are on a losing streak, now is the time to start hacking away.

After this series wraps up in Texas we're headed north of the border for french fries and gravy..... We have the Blue Jays tomorrow, first pitch is at 6:07 (only in Canada) and thats over on Comcast Sportsnet. Look for a possible post after this game today in Texas, it'll depend on the outcome, I'm already a bit agitated with the way we've played today, so we'll see what happens.

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Sox Tack on Another Series Win

I apologize for not posting sooner, I realize that I have 2 games to talk about. Fortunately for me, both games I need to talk about turned out to be wins, which makes it a lot easier to write about. Ok, so the Sox drop a heartbreaker in the series opener and bounce back with vengeance. The offense exploded in the last 2 games of this series with the Dodgers, if I may reference my last post where I said that we will see if we have a great team here based on their ability to bounce back or not after that bad loss on Friday, well I think they answered my question.

First lets talk about Saturday, the offense exploded for 9 runs and Mark Buerhle was..... well, Mark Buerhle. He completely shut down the Dodgers and scattered 7 hits and 2 runs over 7 innings, vintage Buerhle. What was most impressive about this win for Mark was that it improved his overall inter league record to 24-6, thats best all time, in the history of the Big. Congrats Mark. On top of that, Buerhle is now 10-0 in his last 12 inter league starts.... that is an absolutely ridiculous stat, it really shows how dominant he is during inter league play. 

Sox came out and dominated this entire game from the start, knocking their ex teammate Jon Garland out in the 5th inning and shutting down the Dodger offense, highlighted by great pitching and pretty solid defense. Sox took this one easy, 9-2

Offensive highlights for this one:

-Paulie: 3 for 5 with 3 RBIs

- Alexi: 3-4 with 2 doubles and 2 RBIs

-AJ: 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored

This was a huge game for the Sox, because like I said they needed a strong game after dropping that heartbreaker on Friday. This game transitions nicely into Sunday's series finale. 

Sunday the Sox came out looking for yet another series victory and were hoping to improve to only 4 games under .500. Well with Edwin Jackson on the bump, they did just that. The big story in this one was the offense yet again (Edwin Jackson had an O.K game and the defense was pretty bad).

Alexi Ramirez was 4 for 5 with 5 RBIs and fell a triple short of the cycle (have a day). Juan Pierre must be reading my blog because he was 3 for 4 with 2 RBIs, getting on base like a leadoff man should. They knocked the ball around the yard and got on the board fast, posting 3 runs in the first inning off of 2 home runs (Ramirez, AJ). What was nice about this offensive effort was that it was relentless, they got up and instead of trying to cruise the rest of the way, they buried L.A, the continued to add to their lead, I love to see that! They have the type of offense that can burry a team and it was nice to finally see them play to their potential (almost). I say almost because despite all the runs, Adam Dunn is still struggling, imagine if we get him going how dangerous this lineup would be..... Another great sign is that Alex Rios is starting to hit, he is a big key to this offense, now that he's starting to hit, this teams production is going to drastically increase. Just as I said multiple times in previous posts, as the weather heats up, so will this teams offense....

Edwin Jackson was above average, he stuck around 5.2 innings, scattering 1 run on 5 hits. Threw a lot of pitches for only being in there for 5.2 innings. He is still having issues with getting ahead of the hitters, thus causing him to throw more pitches. But all in all he had a nice game.

The defense was bad, they committed 3 errors, not much to say about that, they really just need to improve. 

This team has finally started to show us what a solid contender it can be, winning 7 of our last 10 and 11 of our last 16. What is pretty awesome to think about is that this team is still not playing totally to its potential. The reason I say that is because there are still guys in our lineup not hitting and the defense is still making multiple errors a game. The more confidence that continues to build with these wins, the looser guys are going to be. The looser they are, the better they play. Once we get Rios and Dunn going, this offense is going to be unstoppable and I promise you the defense will come around. 

Now we go on the road for a 3 city road trip. This is a big trip folks, we need to continue to play as well as we have been playing and continue to build the confidence. Because we are slowly creeping back into this thing and it would be a real shame to see all of our work this month go for naught because of this trip. First, we have Texas (in Texas) if we continue to do what we've been doing, were going to be fine. Lets focus on one game at a time and continue to play to our potential. About 2 weeks ago this club was 11-22, now we're 22-26. Pretty impressive if you think about it.

Quick injury report: Carlos Quentin has been benched because of a sore knee, reports indicate that he is fine and he will be available to play tomorrow in Texas. Which is good because last I checked, he's leading the majors in extra base hits...

We're in Texas tomorrow, we're gonna run Danks out on the bump, first pitch will be over on Comcast Sportsnet at 7:05. Go Sox, big series coming up. 

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Sox Can't Dodge a Heartbreaker

This is just a forewarning everyone, I'm still depressed from tonight's loss, this is going to be short and sweet.

The Dodgers came into Chicago on Friday night with the same record as our White Sox. Now I know I had said that sweeping this series would have been HUGE for the Sox. But after how this one ended, we need to pray that we bounce back tomorrow. The dodgers struck first with a 2 run homer off the bat of Matt Kemp in the first inning. After that, Phil Humber absolutely shut them down. The Sox answered right back in the 2nd with 3 runs on 5 consecutive hits (all after 2 outs) highlighted by a 2 run homer by Gordon Beckham. That would be it for the scoring until the 9th. 

Cue Sergio Santos. He comes on in 3-2 Sox lead in the top of the 9th inning. He gets the first 2 guys and with the crowd on their feet, that bases empty, and 2 outs, gives up a game tying home run to Russell Mitchell who was 1 for 13 since coming up from the minors...... Long story short, LA puts up 3 in the 10th, Sox bring the tying run to the plate in the bottom half of the 10th and only plate one. Sox lose, 6-4

Now, I am NOT ragging on Sergio, because he has been spectacular. Until Friday night, he had not allowed a run yet this season. Everyone is going to have a blown save here and there. He should be our closer and he deserves it. What magnifies the loss tonight is the fact that this team is still fighting an up-hill battle to try to recover from that awful losing streak we had. But we are still 9 out of our last 13 and still in good shape. I just pray and hope to God that this heartbreaking loss doesn't send us in a downward spiral. Because this team has shown that it can win and has shown that they are a good team. We NEED the win tomorrow, we really have to bounce back and show the world that this loss is in the past and we're here to stay. Bouncing back after tough loses is what great teams do, we'll see tomorrow if we have a great team on the South Side of Chicago. 

We got Mark Buehrle on the bump tomorrow against former White Sox and member of the 05 World Series team Jon Garland. First pitch is at 1:10 in the afternoon (weather permitting) and that's going to be over on Comcast Sportsnet. 

Try to get some sleep Sox fans, lets put this one behind us and come out ready tomorrow. 

Sox Offense Pounds Carmona Again

Fausto Carmona's ERA against the Sox is now more dense than the fog that lingered around the Cell on Thursday night. The White Sox offense exploded for 8 runs on 10 hits in Chicago against the Indians right hander. This was nothing new for the Sox this season against Carmona as they pounded him on opening day in Cleveland too.

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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Peavy Blanks Division Leading Indians

Last season Jake Peavy suffered an injury that has never before been seen in the history of the MLB. Ill spare the medical mumbo jumbo, basically a muscle in his arm was completely separated from the bone. I've always respected Jake's tremendous talent, while at the same time being skeptical about him as a member of our Sox (because of his initial hesitation he displayed to come to Chicago). But after what he did last night, Jake, you're A OK in my book.

The red hot Indians came into Chicago for a 2 game series. In my opinion, the biggest series this club has faced all season (so far) for a couple reasons. First of all and most obvious of all, its a divisional game, not only that, its the first place team (don't get me wrong, I don't think the Indians will win this division, nor do I read to far into divisional leaders in mid-may). But in terms of momentum, this 2 gamer is a big one. The Sox have been playing much better lately and are turning things around, as Jake said in his post game interview with knock-out reporter Sarah Kustock "We have to beat the teams in front of us to become the team we want to be." Winning both games would not only bring the Indians that much closer to reality, but would also propel our Sox in the right direction (hopefully). I am looking at this series as not only 2 games closer to .500 and the top of the division, but a major confidence booster for this team. Thats what makes it so big, the mental impact it can have on our guys.

Quick game summary: The Sox put one on the board in the first with a sac fly from Dunn.

That was it for the offense, as the main story here was Peavy and the defense behind him. The defensive effort was capped off by a great sliding catch on the warning track by Brent Lillibridge (who by the way has really earned his spot on this roster, I love the way he has been playing when he gets his chances). No errors for the defense as Jake allowed just 3 lonely hits over 9 innings. As Hawk calls him "The Jakemiester" through one whale of a ball game (if I can steal an Ed Farmer phrase). Peavy throws the complete game, 3 hit, shutout..... who would have guessed it?  In just his 2nd start back. The man was touching 94 mph on the gun in the 9th...Wow. Thats really all you can say. Jake Peavy, this buds for you.

This was the type of game, that honestly, can swing an entire season, one of those games you look back on and say, "yup thats really when it turned around for us." You get your starter throwing an absolute gem, and you hold onto win a 1-0 game. Thats a dogfight right there. Thats huge for the mental makeup of a team.

This is that turnaround I have been talking about for the last month. This club has too much talent in every department to keep losing like they were. We've won 3 of our last 4 series (the one we didn't win was a 2 game split against the Rangers). The game tomorrow is huge for this club. Because without tomorrow, today's game means nothing (in terms of standings and record). We just need to start bunching up wins to get back to .500. Thats the bench mark, .500. We get back there, then we can start really looking at the divisional race. I still think this team will be back at .500 by early to mid June.

Im going to close tonight's post with a little food for thought:
With a 6 man rotation, will our starters be going deeper into games than they would have, had they not had that extra day off? Think about it....

I will be in attendance once again tomorrow night (3rd game in 4 days). Again I will do whatever I can to bring home what would be a HUGE win for this club. First pitch 7:10, Hawk and Stoney will have the call for you over on WCIU with Gavin Floyd on the bump. Go Sox.

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Dallas helps beat Texas

The White Sox recently sent Mark Teahan to the disabled list, opening up a roster spot for newly acquired Dallas McPherson who was just called up from triple A. Dallas pinch hit in the 8th inning, singling up the middle and more importantly, moving Beckham to third, setting up the winning run. I'll be honest Sox fans, I was at this game, I did not think they were going to win with the way it started. John Danks looked awful. Falling behind almost every hitter he faced, his pitch count was at an even 70 through 3 innings! He gave up 3 runs on 4 hits, walking 6. The walks are what killed Johnny tonight. But to his credit, he still managed to give his manager 6.1 innings, setting up another spectacular outing for the bullpen (Crain and Santos combined for 2.3 innings, giving up 1 hit and no runs out of the pen, Crain getting the win and Santos recording the save)

The offense has been struggling again to put up runs, mainly highlighted by double plays and failing to capitalize, stranding a ton of base-runners. BUT Brent Morel capitalized on 2 walks in the 8th. After a walk to Quentin and Rios, Morel stepped in and with a 1-2 count hit a missile into the left center field bleachers to tie the game.

The winning run was set up by a Beckham walk and a Dallas McPherson, White Sox debut, single up the middle. What I loved about McPherson's single was that he came up to the plate hacking. He sat first pitch, got what he was looking for and drilled it. Thats what I love to see, especially with an offense that has been struggling like the Sox have been. The winning run, came across to score after a wild pitch with Beckham on third. Another sign that our luck is changing. Now we just need to start hitting.

It was great being there and seeing a comeback win after such an awful start. But, I was just informed by my friend Pat who was at the game with me, that we made it on TV after the winning run scored. Which luckily is in the highlight on Whitesox.com. Although the stupid Comcast Sportsnet scoreboard is blocking most of my face, its still pretty cool to see yourself on TV.

(I just paused the highlight and took a screen shot of it) Anyway, it was a good time, a lot better than Monday night, besides catching a ball in batting practice, the night was a total loss. Which is why I didn't write about it. If I ever don't post after a Sox game, its because A) I was too busy B) They played soooo poorly that I had nothing positive to say. Monday was one of those games.

Anyway, we NEED this offense to get going, they are getting good outings from starters and great work from the bullpen guys. I still have high hopes and expectations for this team, they just need to break out. As JP in the movie, Angels in the Outfield always said: "It could happen." And it will happen

We have the red hot, division leading Cleveland Indians (never thought I'd use the phrase, "red hot" or "division leading" in the same sentence as "Cleveland Indians") coming into town tomorrow for a 2 game set. Game 1 tomorrow is going to be over on Comcast Sportsnet at 7:10. We have Peavy on the bump, hopefully we can bring these Indians back down to earth.

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