September 2008
Thanks, Danks, for Your Performance (and for Restoring My Faith)
You’ve probably noticed that I’ve not been writing. Quite frankly, it was just too stressful to watch the Sox. In all honesty, the past week was too much like 2007 and I just couldn’t stand it. If I had continued to watch, I would have bitten my fingernails off down to my knuckles. Truth be told, I’d started to lose hope that this team could come back and take the division.
I completely ignored Sunday’s game, because I had watched the previous games and the Sox had lost. So I left Sunday’s game alone, and the Sox won. I had Monday’s game on while working around the house. The Sox won, so I decided to risk watching tonight. Again, I was working around the house, so I wasn’t paying complete attention to the game.
It didn’t matter. The Sox managed to win three games in a row, against three different teams, to make the playoffs. That’s the first time that’s happened in Major League history.
I can’t say enough about Danks. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that Danks is one of my favorites. He pitches his backside off, and Tuesday he pitched his backside off on short rest with the division championship on the line. I am in awe. Literally. I tip my hat to you, Danks.
I also tip my hat to Buehrle for Sunday’s game and Floyd for Monday’s game. Without the two of you, the Sox wouldn’t have had the opportunity to play Tuesday’s game.
Tuesday’s game was a team win. The headliners: Danks pitched eight shutout innings and gave up just two hits. Thome hit a monster solo home run – the only run of the game. Griffey’s outfield assist, and Pierzynski managing to hang onto the throw to keep the Twins scoreless. The little things that meant a lot: The three double plays turned by the infield, and Anderson’s highlight reel catch to end the game.
I think the Sox organization may have started a new tradition by asking the fans for a “blackout” in the stands. I think that’s one tradition that should stick around a while, at least for the duration of the 2008 playoffs.
This lady had begun to lose hope, but she’s a believer again. Tuesday night, the Sox finally looked like the team we had seen them be for the vast majority of the season. They looked like a first place team – like a championship team.
Keystone Kops
Someone needs to call the Keystone Kops to tell them that we found their missing personnel in the Sox bullpen. Think it’s an overreaction? Read on, or watch the archived game broadcast.
Friday night was a golden opportunity for the Sox. Kansas City beat the Twins 8-1, so the Sox could have regained first place with a win over the Indians.
Would have, could have, should have: The Sox didn’t.
Ozzie’s post game interview session revealed his own frustrations with the Sox. He said the team should be embarrassed because he was embarrassed. Ozzie mentioned how there were 40,000 Sox fans in the stadium rooting for the team, and the team let them down. He said the team couldn’t have played worse if they had tried to, and described the team’s play as “stupid.”
What made the biggest impression on me was when Ozzie mentioned that getting angry wasn’t working and that he was going to just start laughing. He was getting tired of trying to motivate the team, and if he didn’t just start laughing he was worried his health was going to suffer.
In all honesty, it reminded me greatly of the struggles that I’ve had trying to get my fourteen year old to do his homework, and Ozzie’s dealing with grown men.
Finally, Ozzie said the Sox had to look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves how good they were, himself included.
What happened to cause this kind of a post-game response? In a word: bullpen. There were hit batters, four pitch walks, a balk, two wild pitches, and a run walked in. This wasn’t baseball. It was a farce. Picture the Bad News Bears after they’d gone through puberty. That was Friday night’s game.
For your convenience, I have italicized all the major mistakes made by Sox pitchers on the evening so they will be easier to find. I consider major mistakes to be four or five pitch walks, balks, wild pitches, hitting batters, and walking in runs.
Danks – who has pitched his backside off for the Sox all season – started Friday and was pitching decently until the fifth, when he started off with two base hits and a four-pitch walk to load the bases. Then he gave up a single to Shin-Soo Choo which drove in two runs.
Carrasco came on with men at first and second and still nobody out, and walked the first batter he faced, Peralta, on four straight pitches to load the bases. The next batter, Garko, hit a grand slam. Carrasco took the third batter he faced, Shoppach, to a 1-2 count before hitting Shoppach with a curveball.
With Shoppach at first, MacDougal came in to face Gutierrez. MacDougal took Gutierrez to a 2-1 count before hitting him with a fastball. By some miracle, MacDougal managed to get the next three batters out.
Grand total for the fifth inning: Sox pitchers gave up six runs before recording the first out, four hits, two walks, and hit two batters.
Starting the sixth inning, MacDougal was still pitching. He walked Francisco on four straight pitches to start the inning. The next batter, Shin-Soo Choo, hit a groundball to short which forced Francisco at second. So Choo was on first with Peralta batting. After throwing ball one to Peralta, MacDougal committed a balk to advance Choo to second. Ultimately, on a 3-1 count, Peralta ultimately hit a pop up to Cabrera for out number two.
MacDougal wasn’t finished yet though. He still had a few more mistakes to make before he left the game. The next batter, Garko, saw three straight balls before seeing a strike. Garko walked on just five pitches. Shoppach was next, and MacDougal’s 2-2 pitch to Shoppach was a wild pitch, which advanced the runners to second and third. The final pitch MacDougal threw was high and inside. If Shoppach hadn’t moved, it likely would have hit him the shoulder. Of course, that was ball four, so Shoppach walked.
So now the bases were loaded with two outs. Wassermann came in to face Gutierrez, whom he promptly walked on four straight pitches to walk in a run. Mercifully, Wassermann somehow managed to strike out the next batter, Barfield, to end the nightmare that was the sixth inning.
The strangest thing about the sixth inning: Cleveland only scored one run. Despite all that bad pitching, the Indians were only capable of pushing one run across the plate. Don’t let anyone tell you miracles don’t happen, because you witnessed one right there.
The seventh inning saw Horacio Ramirez come in for Wassermann. Ramirez gave up a single to Asdrubal Cabrera, caused Sizemore to fly out, then gave up another single to Francisco. So there were men on first and third with one out. Ramirez’ 1-0 pitch to Choo was wild, and it allowed Cabrera to score from third.
Still think I’m overreacting in comparing the Sox bullpen to the Keystone Kops? The Keystone Kops could have pitched better. Seriously. We should see if they’re available. They certainly couldn’t have done a worse job.
I don’t like to single anyone out. I know MacDougal is a person who can feel just as much as anybody else. I don’t like to talk badly about anybody. That’s why I’ve avoided saying this. However, I can be silent no longer. In all honesty, I lost all patience with MacDougal last season. He was good right after he came over from Kansas City and has absolutely stunk ever since. The Sox are too good a team for MacDougal. I wanted them to send him down to Triple-A last season, and was a happy camper when they finally did. I was hoping he wouldn’t be with the team this season, but I’m not the one who makes such decisions.
If you think I’m jumping on a bandwagon here, check out my archives from May and June 2007, entitled “Cubs Baseball” and “Hallelujah!” respectively. At that time I said I wanted MacDougal sent down and was happy when they finally did send him to Charlotte.
Give the Sox offense some credit, though: they didn’t give up. After all that craziness, they still kept battling to try to win the game. However, when the bullpen puts the team in that position, it’s going to take a monumental effort to overcome it.
Ozzie wasn’t the only one who was embarrassed by Friday’s game. Let me tell you something, and I say this in all seriousness: If the Sox bullpen is going to play that badly, the Sox don’t deserve to make the playoffs. Think about it: if the White Sox embarrass themselves on a national stage, it’s going to make the team, the division, the city of Chicago and the White Sox fans look bad.
This lady really doesn’t want to see the White Sox embarrass us all on national television, but she might not have a choice: Saturday’s game will be on WGN. Vazquez will pitch on three days rest against Jackson. Please, White Sox, either play like contenders or at least die quietly to put us out of our misery.
They Did Not Do and They Are Nearly Dead
Notice: I said nearly dead, not officially deceased. The White Sox’ playoff chances have not ceased to be just quite yet.
I’ll agree with you wholeheartedly if you call me crazy for saying this, but I don’t believe the Sox have no chance to make the playoffs until they are mathematically eliminated. Are they demoralized? Sure. Discouraged? Probably. Eliminated with three (possibly four) games to go? No way.
I didn’t watch Thursday night’s game, so I’ll have to give you a more in-depth account later. Why not? I watched Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Sox lost. So Thursday when the Sox had gone down 1-2-3 through the first three innings, I decided to turn it off. I checked back in to find the Sox up 5-1 in the fourth, and then turned it off again confident that when I saw the final score later the Sox would have won. No such luck.
Overall, do you know what I saw in this three game series? I saw a blown call wind up costing the Sox a game. I saw the Twins hit balls in just the right spot to fall in for hits. I saw the Sox have pretty rotten luck in general. However, none of that matters. What matters is that I did not see the Sox offense until the third game of the series.
Honestly, I feel bad for Jenks. Thursday was just his fourth blown save of the season and his first loss of the season. He has been as solid as a rock throughout his time with the Sox. He’s been an anchor for the bullpen, but he’s not Superman. He’s human. He’s going to falter every now and again.
The White Sox are not out of the playoff hunt yet. If either the Twins or the Sox lead the division by half a game after Sunday, the Sox will have to make up that rained out game against the Tigers on Monday at the Cell. With three games to go, a half game deficit is not insurmountable. The Sox will come home to play three games against the Indians, starting Friday. The Twins will stay home and face the Royals for three games, starting Friday.
This lady believes the Kansas City Royals just gained a whole lot of fans on the South Side of Chicago, herself included.
Do or Die
I’ve heard of must-win games before, but Thursday’s Sox game against the Twins is the epitome of must-win.
The Sox didn’t get blown out Wednesday night. They didn’t get embarrassed. The Sox played a close ballgame. A blown call in the second came back to haunt the Sox. Carlos Gomez reached base by legging out a bunt. After a base hit by Span which moved Gomez to second, Buehrle tried to pick Gomez off. The umpire called Gomez safe, but replays showed he was out. Gomez later came around to score the Twins third run, which turned out to be the game winner. Tough break, but the Sox can’t control what the umpires do.
Buehrle pitched decently, giving up three runs on eight hits over seven innings. Minnesota didn’t really hit the ball hard at all. However, the bottom line is that the Sox did not score more than 2 runs, losing 3-2. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you need to give your starting pitcher at least three runs if you want to win. No matter who you’re playing, odds are two runs aren’t going to be enough to win the game.
Now the Sox lead is down to a half a game. Earlier in the season, that might not have seemed so bad. With four games to go, a half game lead seems microscopic.
The Sox are capable. Gavin Floyd (16-8, 3.84 ERA) will start for the Sox on Thursday, going against Kevin Slowey (12-11, 3.85 ERA.) Floyd has won in the Metrodome this season, and he’s the only Sox pitcher to have done so. If any one of the Sox starters can win there, we know Floyd can.
The Rays have a magic number of 1 for their division title. The Red
Sox have clinched a playoff appearance, so the wildcard is taken. If
the Sox don’t win the division, they’ll be sitting on the couch in
October.
Half a game lead. Four games left. Only one game left against the Twins. Lose that game and we lose first place.
This lady doesn’t know what else to say. It’s do or die, White Sox. Please show us what you can do so your playoff chances don’t die.
U-G-L-Y
Tuesday’s game has no alibi. It was ugly. Losing 9-3 is never pretty. Oddly enough, I’m thinking Tuesday’s game could wind up being beautiful in retrospect.
Losing a blowout can do one of two things: It can demoralize you, or it can make you angry enough that you are bound and determined not to lose again. I’m wondering if this game will be the spark that lights a fire under the Sox’ collective backsides.
If I were with the Sox, I would be angry that we’d just been blown out. I would think, “We are the first place team here. We are a force to be reckoned with, no matter whose building we’re playing in. We will not tolerate being embarrassed. Not only will we not be blown out again, I will do everything in my power to help us win. Whatever it takes to win the game.”
Mark Buehrle (14-11, 3.87 ERA) starts Wednesday against Nick Blackburn (10-10, 4.15 ERA.) This lady likes the Sox’ chances of winning with Buehrle on the mound and (hopefully) an intense desire to prove they’re the better team.
Shoot Out at the H.H.H. Corral
This series with the Twins reminds me of two gunslingers, staring at each other in the middle of a dusty, deserted street while tumbleweeds drift by in the background. At this point in the season, it’s essentially high noon. By the time this series is over, one team’s playoff chances could be dead while the other team wanders off into the saloon for a drink while waiting for their first round of the playoffs.
Of course, which is the sheriff and which is the villain is open to interpretation. This being a White Sox blog, the Sox are the sheriffs. Being up by 2.5 games, the Sox are quicker on the draw. However, the Twins are not to be taken lightly. Remember, it’s a three game series, and a Twins sweep would mean the Sox would be down by half a game.
I really don’t think it’ll come to that, though. This is as close to playoff baseball as we’re going to get in the regular season. The Sox are not about to go out there and get swept, even if they are playing in their own private house of horrors that is the Metrodome. The Sox will have to win on the road in the playoffs, best to get an early start.
This lady’s going to be hiding behind the curtains and looking out the window, because this is one series I have got to see. Personally, I think it’s the Sox that are going to be hanging out in the saloon after all is said and done.
Whatever It Takes
I’m always thankful to get comments on my blog. It’s just amazing to me that someone reads it. I had one recent comment which reminded me that the Sox were indeed in first place, and that I should have fun. That person is right.
Part of my more negative attitude has been caused by my personal life. I received my college degree in May and I’m still searching for a job. There’s currently very little in the way of entry level jobs out there, so that’s frustrating. Part of the attitude is that this season I don’t feel like it’s destiny for the Sox to win the championship this year.
Don’t get me wrong, years like 2005 come around once in a blue moon (or more rarely, if you’re a Cubs fan.) I understand that not every year the Sox are going to come out and set the league on fire and just charge right on through to claim the ultimate prize.
I think Orlando Cabrera hit the nail squarely on the head in an article on whitesox.mlb.com. This year, the feeling isn’t “We’re going to do this; there’s no doubt.” It’s more like, “We can do this, but we might fail.” If the Sox don’t just come out guns blazing and put the other team down early, or if the Sox fall behind late, it seems they doubt their own ability to come back.
That’s part of the problem with living and dying by the home run. It’s all or nothing, feast or famine. When the home runs come, the comebacks happen. When the home runs don’t come, it seems that it’s much tougher for the Sox to score.
I’m not saying that the Sox should retool and play nothing but small ball. The Cell is a hitter’s park. It only makes sense that a team would be constructed with their home ballpark in mind. There is no perfect team make-up. Everything has advantages and drawbacks.
Perhaps the Sox and I just need to take a deep breath and remind ourselves that the Sox really are in first place, their magic number is down to 5, and they could clinch the division as early as this week.
By the way, in a recent entry in Scott Reifert’s blog, he asked what the “rallying cry” should be for this season. In 2005, of course, it was “Don’t Stop Believing.” Personally, I think Nick Swisher said it best: “Whatever it takes to win the game.” If the home runs don’t come, score some other way. Whatever you have to do, do it. Most importantly, believe in your ability to do it.
That’s this lady’s vote for this season’s rallying cry: “Whatever it takes.” I think I personally need to take my own advice, too. It’s just as well; I never like to advise someone to take a course of action that I would not.
Holey Moley!
What do the White Sox bullpen, Swiss cheese, and the Grand Canyon have in common? They all consist of huge holes.
Indeed, part of why I haven’t written in the past couple of days is that I’ve been having a difficult time coming up with a good comparison for the Sox bullpen that wasn’t rude.
The first game of Sunday’s double header against Detroit, Vazquez was phenomenal. He gave up three hits, two walks, and eight strikeouts over 7.2 shutout innings. Vazquez also recorded the two-thousandth strikeout of his career. Jenks surrendered the two runs the Tigers managed to score in the top of the ninth, which is generally a rare occurrence for him. So the overall story of game one went like this: The Sox took the lead, and despite the bullpen giving up a couple of runs late, the Sox managed to hang on for the 4-2 win.
The second game of that double header the Sox flat out got lucky. Danks once again pitched well (6.0 innings, four hits, no runs, one walk, six strikeouts) and once again had nothing to show for it. The Sox were leading 7-0 going into the seventh inning. Linebrink gave up two runs in the seventh. While that isn’t good, fortunately the Sox could afford those two runs at that point. So the game is 7-2 in favor of the Sox entering the eighth inning. In one of the biggest bullpen collapses to date, Detroit came up with five runs in the eighth inning off of Logan, Carrasco, and Dotel to tie the game at seven. If the Detroit bullpen hadn’t itself collapsed and given up a grand slam to Wise in the bottom of the eighth, allowing for an 11-7 Sox win, who knows who would have won that game.
Monday night against the Yankees, the Sox bullpen surrendered a couple of runs late in the game again. This time it was Wassermann and Ramirez giving up two runs in the bottom of the seventh, taking the game from a 2-2 tie to a 4-2 Sox deficit which turned out to be the final score.
Don’t let the fact that the Yankees aren’t in the playoff hunt fool you. They are still 10 games over .500, as are the Blue Jays. Don’t forget, the Jays won three games out of four against the Sox just last week. Should the Sox get to the playoffs, the teams they will face will be better than the Yankees or Blue Jays. If the Sox bullpen continues to perform the way it has, the opposition will eat the Sox for lunch.
Granted, nobody’s bullpen is going to be spot on all the time. There will be times when runs are given up, and with luck the lead will be great enough that it won’t matter. However, you don’t see many seven run leads in the playoffs. Generally speaking, playoff games are closer and there are fewer runs scored. This lady thinks the Sox will get to the playoffs, but if the bullpen doesn’t get it together soon, the Sox won’t be there long.
The Best Laid Plans of Mice….
After the Royals helped out the Sox by beating the Twins 3-2 in ten innings Thursday afternoon, the Sox had planned to gain a game on the Twins by beating the Jays Thursday night.
Well, it was a good plan, anyway.
Gavin Floyd matched Jays starter Shaun Marcum inning for inning up until the eighth, and then the plan unraveled. Toronto scored six runs in the top of the eighth to take a 6-0 lead. Undaunted, the Sox scored four in the bottom of the eighth to cut the deficit to a much more manageable two runs. While the Sox did get the tying run to the plate, they could get that run no further and lost the game 6-4.
The Jays aren’t pushovers. The Sox 6-5 victory over the Jays Wednesday night ended a 10-game winning streak. Currently nine games behind the Rays in their division and 6.5 games behind the Red Sox in the Wild Card, the Jays may be hungrier to stay in the playoff race than the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
Even so, the Sox needed to take advantage of the opportunity to increase their paper thin one game margin over the Twins. As the season winds to a close, teams are only going to fight harder to stay ahead in the playoff race or simply to stay in contention.
The bullpen, in particular, needs to step it up. Floyd pitched a great game, giving up seven hits over 7.1 innings. When Floyd left the game, the bases were loaded but only one run had crossed the plate. While those runners were charged to Floyd, it was up to the bullpen to keep those runners from scoring.
Don’t panic, Sox fans, but it’s getting awfully late in the season to lose games like this.
Dems De Breaks
After the Ohio Squirrel Revival and an off day, the Sox returned to the Cell. Unfortunately, they took the field minus Carlos Quentin.
A broken bone in Quentin’s wrist will keep him out for the rest of the season. Considering the unlikely season Quentin is having, how he broke his wrist seemed equally unlikely. Quentin broke his wrist when he hit his hand against his bat in frustration after fouling off a pitch during the series with Cleveland. He apparently hit his wrist in the exact right place to break the bone.
Quentin figuratively came out of left field this season to put up some fantastic numbers: 36 home runs, 100 RBI, and a .288 average. Not having him in the lineup is going to make keeping up with the Twins that much more difficult.
However, I think they may have been able to bottle whatever it was that was propelling Carlos Quentin to such a great season. Friday, pretty much the entire team played like him. The Sox won 10-2 over the Angels.
With the lone exception of Swisher, everyone who started the game had a hit. Swisher still managed to reach base on two walks and scored twice. Uribe had two separate two-run homers. Dye went 3-3 and made a fabulous diving catch to end the seventh inning and keep the Angels from scoring. Konerko, who has been having an off season, went 3-3 with an RBI and a run scored. One of those was an infield hit. (How often are we going to see Konerko get an infield hit?) The ball landed in foul territory, hit the grass and bounced fair again. Bizarre but true.
Buehrle started, and he pitched six innings, gave up no runs and only allowed three hits. Carrasco came in after Buehrle departed and gave up the only two runs the Angels scored on three hits. Linebrink and Horacio Ramirez each pitched a scoreless inning to finish the game.
This lady hopes the rest of the breaks this season will be to the advantage of the White Sox.
mlblogsladywhitesoxfan
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