Thursday, August 31, 2006

Sweep Nightmares: Game 133 Thoughts


Sox Lose 3-5 in 10 Innings.


The roller coaster ride continues for the White Sox and their fans. And considering the way the team won games 1 & 2 of this series, the descent should be much steeper than it is. Unfortunately Jeeves can't break out the broom pic cuz the 2006 White Sox have a fetish for The American Eagle, Iron Wolf, and Superman - Ultimate Flight. And I think I'm losing my lunch in the process.

Describing the team in another fashion, they're playing to the level of their competition. To wit, today they lost to a team that hadn't won a game on the road since July 18. You read that right: The Satanic Flat-Fish won their first road game in 44 days...against the White Sox...who're in a penant chase...with the Tiggers losing again and the Twinkies winning again. Errors and non-made plays ruled the day for both teams, GIDPs killed rallies, and general ineptitude on the offensive side of the ball killed the Sox today.

Ugh. (Sighs of exasperation abound.)

And now we get to visit Kansas City. You remember Kansas City, the 49-86 team that split a recent 4 game series with the White Sox at the Cell, the team that just took 2 out of 3 from the WC chasing Twinkies, the team that is 6-5 in it's last 11 games against the Sox, Twinkies and Oakland A's. For a team that's lost almosst twice as many games as it's won, they sure are playing pretty well against the big boys.

This game's surprise lay in the starting pitching. Anyone who thought Vazquez and Hammel would give up 2 & 3 runs respectively should purchase a lotto tricket. As for Javy's performance, he worked out of a 4th inning, bases-loaded jam nicely, allowing one run to score on a Greg Norton single. I wanna temper that mini-praise somewhat, however, by mentioning that on the next at-bat the Flat-Fish at 3rd failed to tag on what looked like a deep-enough fly ball to speghetti arm Nudnik. Javy also gave up the lead in the 6th inning, but it wasn't the usual Chernyobl-like meltdown we're accustomed to from Javy. He only gave up 1 run this time. But it did give up the lead so don't call the Cy Young engravers just yet. Watching his pitching a little closer today, I noticed him jamming the lefties pretty well, but he seemed to be pitching from behind all the time, a recipe for disaster for any pitcher even if it's the Satanic Flat-Fish. One more stat for Javy that we blogged during the game: ERA for RISP w/2 outs: 26.48!! That's some Jose Canseco-like pitching number.

This game's demise lay in the bad relief pitching for the White Sox. Previously reliable Matt Thornton gave up a HR to D. Navarro (no, not Carmen Electra's soon-to-be ex -- Hi, Carmen, call me!), but some bozo catcher with 7 career homers. What is it with the White Sox giving up homers to the Eddie Gaedel Allstars? And the supposed Sox wunderkind, Brandon McCarthy, got shellacked for 2 runs in the tenth. What was recently a strength for the Sox is steadily regressing to mean, and they can't rely on just Jenks and MacDougal. I can't believe that I'm thankful that Boone Logan is gonna be in the bullpen tomorrow, but that's what it's come to.

A quick note on the today's defense. It was, in a word: shoddy. A failed DP by Gooch and Gload led to the run in the 6th. AJ stumbled after a crucial popped-up bunt attempt in the 10th and failed to get to it. He also failed throw out Delmon Young on a trickling wild pitch in the 10th that by all rights shoulda been ruled a passed ball. The Flat-Fish were the catylists for the bad defense this whole series, and the Sox just had to prove they were better at poor picks, throws and catches.

Oh, and the White Sox had another runner gunned down at the plate. Joey Cora, you're the greatest!

Awards Time-------------------

Bad Ozzie Move of the Game: Sticking to his lefty/righty matchup guns, Ozzie PH Mack in the 10th for BA instead of the slumping Pods. (Pods had another CS today. He needs to take lessons from JD.)

Good Ozzie Move of the Game: Pulling Javy after the 6th. Ozzie realized, maybe a game or 4 too late, when Javy is done, he's done.

Play of the Game: If Navarro's homerun didn't crush the team's spirit, it did mine.

Big Ups of the Game: MacDougal (he'll get a PotG one of these days) and AJ (for his clutch 2-out, 2-run HR after Paulie GIDP -- you don't pick up your teammates much better than that )

And my White Sox Player of the Game is ...........




Javy Vazquez (3)

6.0 innings and 2 runs is more than you can ask for even if it is the Satanic Flat-Fish


SOX RECORD: 78-55.......0.5 games up in the WC

Fight the Power!



Residents of Bridgeport on Chicago's southside will gladly attest to the solid reputation of Jimbo's Lounge, a local watering whole located at 3258 S. Princeton. It's been run by the same family for a very long time, and since the demise of McCuddy's (a bar located where US Cellular Field's ticket windows currently reside) it's been the de facto home bar for Chicago White Sox faithful. Frequented not only by residents but players and management as well, Jimbo's has recently been living "high on the hog" with the neighborhood resurgence and the White Sox success.

Now comes word that the building owners of Jimbo's plan on terminating the operating lease on September 30 (or possibly after a playoff run by the Sox) and start their own business or maybe even install condominiums. According to The Tribune the family who owns the building has many ties to the community including Mayor Daley and organized crime. How about that for a dichotomy?!?!

While I think it's sad that what is now considered a southside institution may be closing it's doors, the landlords are well within their rights as the property owners to be a bunch of ass-munching dickwads. The ass-munching dickwads want to make money, they see a potential real estate goldmine, and they 're acting like Signor Roberto in The Godfather II . One American dream is being made un-American by a group of ass-munching dickwads.

What can you do?

For one, you can write about the plight of the good guys, in this case Jimbo's, by slinging verbal mud and excrement in the general direction of the ass-munching dickwads, and I recommend checking out some of ChiSoxBlog's friends' commentaries at Ron Karkovice Fan Club and SouthsideSox.

Secondly, you can patronize Jimbo's as much as possible so the establishment owners can make enough money to fight the ass-munching dickwads for as long as possible in court.

The ass-munching dickwads not-so-subtle attempt to destroy one family's American dream deserves to be thwarted, and it's up to White Sox fans to do the thwarting.

Show some support. Next time you attend a White Sox game or if you're in Bridgeport for some other reason, stop into Jimbo's and have a few brews and a bite to eat. Channelling Chicago's own (you hear me, Journey?) cheesy '70s & '80s rock band Styx, "Don't Let It End"!

Game 133 Preview: Sweep Dreams

Javy "one-reason-for-James'-defibrilator" Vazquez (R, 11-8, 5.06) for the Homeboys
vs.
Jason Hammel (R, 0-2, 7.71) for the Satanic Flat-fish

Anything less than a sweep today would be a disappointment. Anything less than one shock with the new defibrilator would be a surprise. Anything more than 5 innings outta Javy would be cause to use said defibrilator on Ozzie's testicles. Come on, boys. Give Jeeves a reason to break out the broom pic!

1:05 PM start today!

Pick to Click...gonna go with Joe Crede today.
DickdaStick, who is at the game today, is going with....Paul Konerko.

Readers add your Picks to Click to the comments. Thanks!

An Easy Win...Where Would the Fun be in that?: Game 132 Thoughts

The Sox pull it out, winning 5-4!

-Another day, another scrappy win by the Sox. I'm happy as long as we keep winning, but the stress levels are getting seriously high. I think in total with all this stress, the Sox have taken about 7 months off the tail end of my life.

-Although you would never expect the '05 Sox to go down love-4 against the D-Rays, this victory did remind me a lot of last year's team.

-Garland had a decent performance; he didn't have his best stuff but he gutted out a good start. He left a few balls up early and found himself down by four runs. The '06 version of the Sox would have packed it in and lost something like 8-2, but we fought back today. After giving up a run in the fourth, Garland put up 4 scoreless innings, seemingly waiting for the Sox to put up runs. Garland ended the game, giving up 4 runs in 8 innings and only threw 93 pitches. Not a bad for a day's work, especially considering the pitching performances we've been getting lately from people not named Jon Garland.

-Dye showed off another aspect of his game (MVP voters, I hope you took note). Dye showed off the ability to get not the clutch hit, but the clutch steal. On two occasions, Dye singled and stole second with two outs, and on both occasions he scored. I don't know if this was a call from the dugout or JD's own decision, but those SB's were huge.

-The Emperor, like many of his teammates, has a flair for the dramatic. He has been struggling as of late, batting .236 since the start of August, but he was able to hit a huge two-run homer to tie the ball game. Hopefully, Gooch will build off this and start to turn things around.

-Pods seems to be slipping back toward mediocrity, going 0-5 with a whopping 4 k's. Yes, that a golden sombrero.

-We had another wacky play today. With one out in the ninth, Baldelli flew out deeeep to right. There was a runner on first and he was going on the pitch. JD caught the ball and threw a laser to first. The runner barely beat the throw, but Paulie threw the ball to second for the appeal. It turns out the runner didn't touch second on his way back to first.

-The Sox won, but there is some bad news. Thome re-pulled his hammy, and is out indfinitely. We'll find out the severity of the injury tomorrow, hopefully. I say treat him with kiddie gloves; we need him to be healthy for the end of the season and the post-season. Gload has been hot as of late and can fill in for the time being.

-Looks like JD is staying in the 3-hole by default.

-Onto the awards...

Bad Ozzie Move of the Night - Starting Jim Thome. I wasn't thrilled to see him in there to begin with. I figured that these are the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and we should be able to handle them without Jimbo. It's not as though Gload has been stinking up the joint.

Good Ozzie Move of the Night -Leaving JD in the 3-hole. As the saying goes, don't fix it if it ain't broke.

Play of the Game - Iguchi's game tying homer. JD's 2nd SB was huge, but Iguchi's homer gave us new life.

Big Ups of the Night to Garland for staying strong and giving us a quality start, and Gooch for obvious reasons.

Sox Player of the Game




Jermiane Dye (15)








Sox Record: 78-54... 1.5 up on the Twinks!!

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Game 132 Preview

Tim Corcoran 4-6, 4.16 for the D-Rays

vs.

Jon "Staff Ace" Garland 15-4, 4.47 for the ChiSox

The Sox won an ugly one last night. I'm expecting something a little prettier this time around with our ace on the hill.
Now that we've got one game under our belt, my goal for the Sox during this 6 game stretch against the dregs of the league (TB and then KC) is for them to go 5-1. I'd be overjoyed with 6-0, but 5-1 is acceptable to me.

My pick to click is The Emperor, Tadahito.
James is going with Mr. MVP, JD.
DickDaStick is going with BA.

Let's see those Picks to Click!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The Two Faces of White Sox Baseball: Game 131 Thoughts

Sox win 12-9! *Sigh of relief*

-Today we got to see a bunch of good things from our Sox and a lot of bad things as well. Everytime we did something good, something bad was sure to follow. (I'll try to keep the chronology of the game in tact)

Good - Mr. MVP, Jermaine Dye, followed up his Player of the Week award with a three-run shot. It was an omen of things to come, lots and lots of runs.

Bad - The D-Rays ran at will on us. They stole 4 bases and had they not been hitting so well and needed to manufacture runs, I'm sure they would have ran even more.

Good - Every Sox hitter, save for Uribe, got a hit. Crede had 4, AJ had 2, and Gload had 2.

Bad - Freddy decided his lead was too large, and stopped pitching well. Giving up 2 of his 5 runs in the third.

Good - The Sox stole some bases of their own; one each for Pods and Gooch. I liked both steals; they were at appropriate times.

Bad - Freddy continued to give up runs. It wasn't a big game, so you can't blame him. (Those sarcasm detectors should be going beserk right now).

UGLY - Joey Cora waved Paulie home on a routine double in the 6th. Paulie, predictably, was out by a mile. The only way he would have been safe would be if Baldelli air-mailed the throw, but considering how much time he had, that would have been VERY unlikely.

Good - Ozzie gave the ball to Neal Cotts with a 6 run lead. Even Neal couldn't blow that lead right?

Bad - He tried his hardest. Giving up 2 runs in a third of an inning of work.

Good - Ozzie yanked him promptly.

Bad - Ozzie then gave the ball to Riske, who proceeded to give up 2 runs with out recording an out.

Good- Matt Thornton came on and showed us all he's a freakin' fireman. Thank you Seattle, thank you. Matt Thornton is now '05 Neal Cotts. Neal Cotts is now a blend of Damaso Marte and 'o6 Cliff Politte.

Bad - Bobby Jenks is in the game. On a night that we score 12 runs, I never want to see the closer wasted.

Good - Bobby takes care of business, cuz he's a mad mother shut-your-mouth. Jenks gave the Sox the lead in the Wild Card standings and put himself atop the list for saves.

Onto the awards...

Bad Ozzie Move of the Day - Going to Riske after Cotts. I think we all had a bad feeling when Riske came in.

Good Ozzie Move of the Day - I like the other personnel moves he made today. I like the lineup with Gload and BA in the lineup, and I like going to Cotts with a huge lead. Neal needs confidence and that's the perfect opportunity for him.

Play of the Game - With 1 out in the eighth, runners on second and third with one out, and the Sox clinging to a 11-8 lead, Thornton got Upton to ground out to Uribe. Yes a run scored, but that out stopped the momentum and let everyone breathe a little easier.

Big Ups of the Night - To the offense, especially JD and Pods. Pods had himself a nice game reaching base 3 times, scoring twice, and even driving in a run.

Sox Player of the Game - I give it to Joe Clutch. 4 hits, 2 RBI's and a nice double.





Joe Crede (13)





Sox Record: 77-54... 1/2 up in the WC standings!

Fresh Off A Day Off, Game 131 Preview

Casey Fossum 6-5, 4.91 for the D-Rays

vs.

Freddy "Gimme Some Damn Runs" Garcia 12-8, 4.99

This isn't a game against a good team, so let's see if Freddy brings it or not.
Sox really need to take care of business here. We can't afford to lose this series. I'm hoping for a sweep, but I'm not going to predict one until after this game.

My pick to click is Jermaine Dye.

Let's see those picks!

Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Buehrle Bile File Says, "He STILL Loves Us!" Game 130 Recap



Sox Win 6-1!!!!

He still loves us, he really really loves us! I knew the love affair wasn't over yet. I knew last night's drunk-dialing rendezvous would mean something to our old man, Mark!

*Sniff, Sniff*

We begged and pleaded and left not really knowing what Mark would do today.(Could Mark be the stopper he once was?)

*Sniff, Sniff*

We waited patiently with bated breath, and after giving up a run in the 1st inning, we weren't sure if last night meant anything to Mark or not (heartbreaking 8-7 loss and 1.5 back in the WC race).

*Sniff, Sniff*

But he showed us. Even without his personal catcher catching him (AJ started today), Mark came thru. (So did AJ with a 2 run HR.)

*Sniff, Sniff*

He showed he knows how to forgive a mistake. (He actually pitched over a Ross Gload throwing error.)

*Sniff, Sniff*

He proved he could stay out of the big arguement. (He stopped the Twinkies at 1 run in the 1st inning.)

*Sniff, Sniff*

He used his charm, confidence and independence to sweep us off our feet. (7.1 innings, 9 hits only plated 1 run, 6 K's)

*Sniff, Sniff*

And he left us so happy to sob in the embrace of his friends. ( Sox HR's: Uribe, Crede, AJ)

*Sniff, Sniff*

Well, Mark, if all it takes is a drunk-dial from the Biler at 3AM for you to pitch well, you can be sure to expect a call next Saturday. Sleep well, my sweet.

Just remember one thing, Mark. Hell hath no fury like the wrath of a White Sox fan scorned. If you thought the Ligue's were crazy, just try pitching shitty again. Sharon Stone's ice-pick would be Disney World compared to me.

(I, the Biler, reserve the right to be as harsh or as ebullient to Mark Buehrle as I please. He's my pitching stud, and nobody else can have him.)

Awards Time -------------------------------------------------

Bad Ozzie Move of the Game: (I predicate this call by telling you to hold your boos until you read later on in the post.) He started Scott Pods-crap-nik, whose play of late has in no way earned him any playing time.

Good Ozzie Moves of the Game:
  1. Starting AJ...Mark quipped in his postgame comments that AJ said -- tongue firmly planted in cheek -- he didn't want to "mess him up."
  2. Starting BA in CF is always a good move, and he was 2-4 today.
  3. Using Mike MacDougal 1.2 innings. He was solid if not spectacular.
Play of the Game: With 1 run in and 2 runners on, Torii Hunter, as hot at the plate as can be, grounded into a FC to end the 1st inning. Keping the deficit at 1 was huge for the psyche of the team. The Sox knew they were gonna score on Silva; the question was how many would they need? Mark answered that in the 1st.

Big Ups of the Game: MacDougal, and yes, Scotty Pods. He was 3-4 w/ a bunt single, 1 run, 2 SB, 1 BB and, mother of god!, an outfield assist at second on Luis Castillo. (This is a double-edged sword, though. While it was nice to see Pods produce, Ozzie will now have an excuse for continuing to start him in LF. One good game does not a season make.)

And my White Sox Player of the Game is......

WAS THERE ANY DOUBT???



Mark Buehrle (2)




Sox Record: 76-54...and 0.5 games back in the WC. It's gonna be a long ending to this season.

The Buehrle Bile File Game 130 Preview: I Feel Jilted

Mark Buehrle (L, 10-11, 4.87) for the Cardinals Chicago White Sox
vs
Carlos Silva (R, 8-11, 6.45) for the Minnesota Twinkies

-----------------------------------------------------------------



The Buehrle Bile File says...

The first few days after a break-up are an emotional and trying ordeal. No one ever comes out unscathed when someone tells you you're not worth it anymore.

For a dude it's a blow to the ego.

Usually the blow results in a drunken whoring fest where at the end of night a dude usually find himself in one of two situations. First, and less frequently, a dude preys on unsuspecting co-eds using dusty and dated charm and wit (no need for these while you're in a committed relationship) eventually scaring them off at the end of the night with a wimpering karaoke rendition of Richard Marx's "Hold on to the Night" devoted to his ex. (Don't ask me about this. I've never ever done it before in my life. I swear.) Secondly, and much more frequently, around 1:00AM a dude's poor ex gets drunk-dialed where dude simultaniously calls her honey and bitch all at the same time. A dude'll do anything he can to get his ex to agree to a rendezvous so he can give it one last roll in the hay cuz you know a woman just can't resist the smell of stale beer, cigarettes and loud obnoxiuos grunts of love.

The smart woman turns off her phone that first weekend after a break up; the dumb one lets a dude in the door.

Well, Mark Buehrle is in the process of breaking up with Chicago White Sox fans. We all know of his love for all things St. Louis Cardinals, and we're just the girl he's getting close to so he can hit on our friend. (Cards fans and White Sox fans share a mutual hate for the Cubs, so I'd say we were friends.)

We've been duped into thinking he cares (he professes he has no objections with resigning with the Sox). So we've given him the keys to the door (he's been an opening day starter), and we've let him sample the merchandise (he had a string of 49 consecutive starts of 6 innings or more). He's even given us a fan's greatest orgasm (being an intregal part of the 2005 World Series Championship).

And now he wants out. Of Chicago. Of our lives. Of our sweet relationship.

Well, that's the way it looks. He's subtly sabotaging his relationship with us, making us call for his ouster and writing tomes to his recent troubles. (I'm assuming it was my feminie side that inspired me to start the Buehrle Bile File, feeling like a jilted lover.)

Well, Mark, a dude's here to say, if you want out, fine by him.

But I'm drunk-dialing you for one more quick roll in the hay before I let you go, okay? (2006 World Series Champs, please!)

Pick to click...Joe Crede

Note to Jeeves: I'm bored and insomnia is kicking in so I'm publishing at 3:35 AM.
Note to everyone else: Check out Jeeves' courageous recap of last night's rollercoaster heartbreaker, and
add a PtC to the comments. By the way, the conversation of late has been pretty damn good. Keep it up.

Flatlining: Game 129 Thoughts

Sox crumble in extras 7-8


-Let's face it, our playoff chances are on life support now. I would like to be optimistic and point out that there's still a lot of baseball to play, but this is the most demoralizing loss of the season. The Piranhas ripped out the Sox' heart today. A victory today, in such dramatic fashion, with their ace on the mound, would have given the Sox an unbelievable surge of confidence and momentum. Instead, we have a loss and the question of whether or not our best can beat the Twins.


-The Sox did nothing early to suggest that they had any interest in winning this game. Contreras sucked. He HAS to be hurt. I don't understand how there could be such a huge drop off in his performance. His ERA is now a whopping 4.25! The blame can't fall squarely on Contreras' shoulders. Ozzie can be attributed 3 of the 5 runs Jose gave up. How's that you may ask? Well, I'll tell you. Ozzie, after claiming he was going to leave Brian Anderson alone, decided to play Rob "I belong in LF or in the infield" Mackowiak. He botched two plays terribly, ones that I'm confident BA would have made. I groaned upon seeing the lineup without BA penciled in at center, and I was feeling murderous after watching Mack out there.
I don't want to blame Mack, because really, it isn't his fault. He's not a centerfielder; we all know that, well all of us except Oz.

-Our first three RBI's came from Mack and from solo shots by Sandy and Gload. Unusual suspects indeed.

-Brandon McCarthy has finally been spotted. I don't know what Ozzie was getting at, not pitching him yesterday. I assumed he was hurt, but he came out and pitched an outstanding 5 1/3. The only blemishes on his performance were a solo shot by Hunter and a walk. Outside of that, he didn't allow any baserunners. Ozzie, please take notice, only Jon Garland could currently accomplish something like that. Just go ahead and put Jose on the DL, because he must be hurt, and plug Brandon into the rotation.

-Actually, would it be too much to ask for a two-man rotation? Garland and McCarthy are young, they could bounce back.

-The Twinks manufactured runs against Jenks and Thornton, our two best relievers. You can't even fault our guys all that much. They pitched well, but just not well enough.

-JD wanted to spark us to the playoffs; he wanted to be remembered as the man that saved the 2006 season, but alas, his teammates let him down. I would have given anything to be at The Cell when Dye unleashed that smash. Did you hear Hawk's call of that homer? I think it was the most passionate "You can put it on the board" ever. I thought he was going to blow a vocal chord. Team MVP, anyone?

-We had good and bad defense today (overlooking Mack's, which was horrendous.) Uribe made some nice plays, but he also botched one, which lead to a run. Gload has to be commended for his picks at first. If it wasn't for Gload the Sox would have given up a few more runs. I put no blame on him for not snagging that liner in the 11th.

-The Sox have a knack for hitting closers; it's too bad we no longer have a knack for winning.

Onward to the awards...

Good Ozzie Move of the Night - Pulling Contreras early and going to McCarthy. This time the reliever he chose, actually performed.

Bad Ozzie Move of the Night - Rob. Mackowiak. In. Center. Period.

Big Ups of the Night to Jermaine Dye for continuing to show why he is our MVP, and why he should be mentioned along with Jeter and Papi for the AL MVP.

Sox Player of the Game

I know there will be some outrage about this pick. I cannot understate how clutch JD's homer was, especially after just missing one on the first pitch. However, McCarthy provided something that has been missing for the Sox all season, good pitching. We have scored runs all season long, but a strong performance like this has been hard to find. I feel like I need to reward this rarity, and hope (though I doubt it) that this sways Ozzie to give McCarthy the rock at the start of a game.




Brandon McCarthy (2)






Sox Record: 75-54...check the sidebar for the standing, I don't even want to say it.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Game 129 Preview

Johan Santana 15-5, 3.03 for the Twinks

vs.

Jose Contreras 11-6, 4.04 for the third place White Sox

The Sox lost a real tough one yesterday. I'm just praying they take it as a wake up call and aren't completely demoralized. They've gotta go at the Twins strong and hope they get to Santana. I don't want to have to go into Sunday with the prospect of getting swept.

Please Jose, show some early season form. Just this once!

Against the Sox this season, Santana is 3-1 with a 2.25 ERA.

My pick to click will be made closer to game time, once I see the lineups.
Fornelli picked Crede.

Readers, make those picks here!

Front Desk, I Didn't Ask For A Wakeup Call: Game 128 Thoughts

Sox blow it, 4-5

-I think the general consensus among Sox fans was that we were going to be able to turn it up a notch and beat the Twins last night. After salvaging a split with the Motor City Kitties, there was an upsurge of confidence in our boys, but the Twins apparently had other plans and gave us all a rude awakening. The Sox were full of confidence (relatively speaking) coming into the game and now have the prospect of facing a must-win against Santana.

-Things started of well enough. Paulie blasted his first homer in 65 at bats. Then we had two runners on and no outs in the second, but we only got one run out of it. Gload was gunned down at the plate; thanks to Wavin' Wen -erm- Joey Cora. Maybe Joey was thinking there was no way Pods (the next batter) was going to drive in Gload so he just sent him.

-Our defense was there too. Tadahito made a beauty of a backhand stab and snuffed out a Twins rally in the third. Gooch had a nice diving stop in the fourth as well.

-Even Javy was looking good. All of us in the stands, though, were holding our breath as the 6th inning came closer.

-Just like clockwork, Javy started to blow up as soon as the sixth started. It's ridiculous; I don't understand how someone can have such a mental block. It has to be a mental block, I can't think of any other explanation.
Small aside, before the sixth, Javy had let up 3 hits. He was looking like vs. Toronto Javy.
But him blowing up is inevitable, it can't be stopped. Like the roll of the tide, like Hollywood romances falling apart, like the Cubs not winning the World Series...sorry, that was a low blow, but it did make me feel slightly better about my team.
So yes, in the sixth, longball, single, the big ol' yankarooney. I'm glad Oz got him out of there early. At that point people still thought Javy pitched well. He was given a standing O. I didn't cheer though. I saw who was coming in the game, and was about ready to cry.

-Neal Cotts. (I'm poaching some stats from the Cheat.) This man hasn't had a pitchless inning since August 6th (8 appearances), he has allowed lefites to hit .429 since July 8th.

-Miraculously no runs crossed under his watch. Morneau singled and then Ozzie went to the 'pen for our savior, scratch that, the Twins' savior, David Riske. I'm not totally upset with him calling for Riske, because he has pitched well for us, but hindsight iis 20/20 and one Torii Hunter three run bomb and I was cursing.

-AJ teased us by tying the score in the bottom half of the inning, but MacDougal blew it in the ninth.

Onto the awards...

Good Ozzie Move - Getting Javy out early. It didn't pay dividends, but it was the right move.

Bad Ozzie Move - Getting Javy out early and replacing him with Neal "I'm mysteriously sucking" Cotts.

Big Ups of the Day to the offense for getting Javy an early lead.

Most telling stat of the night - Javy's 6th inning ERA is 11.32.

Sox Player of the Game

I have to boycott this pick again. Too big of a loss, and no one had a stunning performance.
These guys deserve mention though...Gload had 3 hits, AJ and Paulie hit big homers.

The Sox better wakeup and put on a fine performance today vs. Santana.

Sox Record: 75-53...We're no longer leading the wildcard.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Game 128 Preview

Brad Radke 12-9, 4.35 for the Twinkies

vs.

Javy "Chernobyl" Vazquez 11-8, 5.13 for the ChiSox

Huge, huge series for the Sox. This is even bigger than the series with the Tigers.

Javy could really endear himself to the fans by pitching lights out for the 4th or 5th time all season.

Some thoughts from Pander

What more can we say about Brad Radke, a pitcher who should need no introduction to White Sox fans. I have taken to calling him Rocket lately, not after Mr. Clemens, but rather after Gary Busey's character in Rookie of the Year, a washed-up starter who pitched through an injury. Guts and guts alone buoyed him and the Cubbies to the promised land in the movie, an ending that could only fly in Hollywood. (Also of ironic note is that the main character in that movie, a young pitching phenom, blew away competition before injuring himself. However, that character's last name wasn't Liriano.) We're more along the lines of the White Sox from the Major League movies, particularly the one with the hated White Sox hitter who was traded from Cleveland (to be ably played by A.J. Pierzynski). We're going to smack hits and smoke bitches and not make any apologies for being mean or looking bad in the process. I just hope we can exert some patience today to achieve that mission, cause with Brad Radke the key is first pitch ball. We get that, and Brad's just a righty Mark Buehrle without a curveball.

My pick to click is Jermaine Dye.
DickDaStick picked AJ.
Pander's going with Gooch
James is glad to pick Gload

Readers, you only have 8 hours to make your picks. Post 'em here as comments!

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Firing On All Cylinders: Game 127 Thoughts

Sox clean up shop 10-0, baby!

The Sox were really firing on all cylinders. They were hitting well, batting well, fielding well; they were excelling in basically all aspects of the game. I've just got to cite a bunch of stats from the game. It was truly spectacular.

I'll start with hitting, because that gaudy 10 really stands out.

  • Every Sox starter had a hit except Ross Gload.
  • Brian Anderson had a 2-hit game. Pablo and Dye had 3-hit games.
  • Dye had two homers and Juanny pitched in with his own three run job. All three homers came with two outs.
  • In fact, now that I'm looking at the box score, 9/10 runs were with two outs.
  • AJ even broke out after slumping and got himself a hit and got on base twice (although he did strike out twice)
  • Anderson hustled his ass off on his way to a three-bagger.
  • We tagged Robertson for a career high 10 runs. This is good news considering how badly we've struggled against starters and lefties.

Time to wax poetic on Jon's pitching

  • CG game shutout!
  • He looked completely relaxed throughout the game. Sorry to use an old cliche, but he was really just playing catch out there.
  • Jon was pretty efficient. He threw 98 pitches through 8 innings and finished with a total of 111.
  • After Granderson's 2 out single in the third, Jon didn't give up a hit until the ninth.
  • Garland got his 15th win of the season, and now has the most wins (33) in the AL over the last two years.
  • Garland really is the ACE of the staff.
  • With the complete game, Ozzie was able to rest the 'pen for our oh, so crucial series coming up against the Twinkies.

The Sox really flashed some leather. I'll check out youtube and the internet later to see if I can find some clips for those of you who missed them.

  • Brian Anderson had a beautiful diving catch, robbing Casey of a double in the second inning. He covered an insane amount of ground to get to it. That will definietly be a Sportscenter top 10 or a web gem. Hopefully that's enough to convince Ozzie to leave BA alone in CF.
  • Gload had a nice diving stop at first. Paulie definitely would never have been able to get to it.
  • Juan had a good stop as well. He ranged far to his left, slid, turned over and fired to first. It was very controlled and very smooth.
  • Then of course there was Pablo's play. He threw out Casey at first base, from left field. It was a decent play.

You didn't think that's all I was going to say about it did you? This is seriously a once in a lifetime thing. It's rare enough that you see someone thrown out at first from RF, but this was aaaaall the way over in left. I think everyone that saw this game will remember it as the game that Might Casey was gunned down. So the play, Casey lines one to Crede. He leaps and it brushes the top of his glove and rolls to left. Casey meanwhile, assumed that he was out and started to take his helmet off and walk to his dugout (he stayed on the basepath, luckily). Pablo exhibiting his first bit of pixie dust in some time, charged the ball and fired to first. While Pablo was tracking down the ball, Casey broke for first. He was really chugging hard, but it was in vain. He was out by a hair; Pablo had a beautiful throw and Gload streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetched for the ball. 5-7-3.

The running was good too. No we didn't have any stolen bases or any great running, but we didn't make any blunders!

I should have known we were in store for a crazy game after seeing Alice Cooper throw out the first pitch of the game.

Good job ChiSox! Lets see you bring it against the Twinkies.

Onto the awards...

Bad Ozzie Move of the Game - none. I can't think of anything bad that he did.

Good Ozzie Moves of the Game - Pablo in left. Not only was Pods out, but Pablo was very productive today. Leaving in Garland for the whole game. He rested the 'pen for the Twins.

Big Ups of the Day to the offense for tearing it up, especially Dye, Pablo, and BA.

Video Clips of the Day - Anderson's diving grab, the 5-7-3

Sox Player of the Game

Jon Garland (7)

Jermaine Dye (14)

Both the offense and pitching were so fabulous, I thought we needed a played to represent each aspect.

Sox Record: 75-52...A full game up on the Twins! (At least until they play later today)

Game 127 Preview

12:05 Start! (with a rain delay)
It's the perfect thing to wake up for.

Jon Garland 14-4, 4.73 for the Good Guys

vs.

Nate Robertson 11-9, 3.71 for the Bad Guys

The Sox go for the split today, and I'm glad to see the ace of our staff on the mound. Yes, this is an important game for us.

The good news is that Garland is 6-0 in afternoon starts.Nate R. is 3-3 with a 4.29 ERA in afternoon games. And he's 0-2 vs the Sox.
Roberston pitched well in August, although his 1-3 for the month wouldn't indicate it. He had a 2.96 ERA for the month. I'd like to see us budge that over 3.00.

Onto the picks...
I've got Joe Crede.
James took Uribe.
DickdaStick took Gooch.
Jonathon Kelley is abstaining from a pick today.
D.T. Kelly has around an hour to make a fresh pick, cuz DickdaStick already took GOoch.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Breathe a Little Easier, Sox Fans: Game 126

Sox (breath in, pause, breath out) Win: 7-5!

Freddy finally got the runs he wanted. And it's a good thing too, because he gave up 5 runs in 5.1 innings. A little piece of me wished that someone like AJ or maybe BA had walked over to Freddy after the early 6 runs and said, "There's SIX runs, Freddy. Think you can hold them under that?" Another little piece of me wished I could see his reaction after Thornton allowed his two inherited runners to score; I wanted to see if he would act out again. No such luck though. Maybe the mandate came down from the powers-that-be to Comcast not to rock the boat. (Of course, that could just be a tactic the Tribune Company uses on it's writers who rip the Cubs.)

Many, many other things to discuss, so I'm think I'm gonna go bullet-style here. Hmmm, where do I start? Maybe with this...
  • The frightening news: the Thominator had a great, great at bat against lefty Will Ledezma only to pull up lame running into 2nd base with a strained left hamstring. It was a blistering shot to deep left-center that went for an RBI ground-rule double, a little unlucky in that regard since Cintron would have scored easily from 1st base. But the limping-Thome screeched to a halt and Herm and Ozzie were out there in an instant. (Gooch replaced Thome in the lineup.) It was like a children's story. See Jim hit. See Jim run. See Jim limp. See James cry.
  • Jermaine Dye made me wet like a '80s schoolgirl at a New Kids on the Block concert when he hit a two-out, 3-run HR in the top of the 1st inning.
  • Despite the misplay on a blooper between Uribe, Pods and Mack, I've decided to stop ripping on Mack and his play in CF cuz Ozzie is setting him up for failure by playing him there so much. Clearly he would be better suited starting in LF for a sloppy, slumping Scott Pods-crap-nik. There is no doubt Mack can hit (2-4, R, BB), and Pods is only wasting at bats for the team.
  • Speaking of Pods, he made his 8th error on the season, a throwing error, in the 6th inning. And I'm about to pile on some more. He has twice as many GIDPs as Thome and has an OPS under .700. This is not a knee-jerk reaction. This is hard factual evidence. It's time for a change in LF be it Roblo Mackozuna or Ryan Sweeney or whomever. Someone send KW and Ozzie the memo.
  • Jim Leyland is God. At least Hawk Harrelson thinks so. In the top of the 7th, with runners on 1st and 2nd, Pods is called on to sac-bunt the runners over. His first attempt is a foul ball and after taking a pitch for a ball, he take another pitch for a very border-line strike from right-hander Coby Lewis. Immediately Leyland pops outta the dugout and replaces the righty for lefty Jamie Walker knowing Pods is gonna be swinging away with two strikes. Leyland is playing the percentages albeit in an unorthodox way. Ozzie counters (some would say reacts in the negative connotation) by pinch hitting BA for Pods in the middle of the at bat. On one pitch, BA swings and misses, and Pods is creditted with a strikeout, the best swing and miss BA's had all year. Back to Hawk. He called it the best move of the year. What?!? Is he drinking the Jim Leyland Kool Aide? When Hawk was the White Sox GM did Leyland secretly pay him off to fire Tony LaRussa? Sure it was a good move -- the Sox didn't score -- but best move of the season? Hawk's exaggeration was like a teenage boy lying about his sexual conquests with a cheerleader who did nothing but wink at him.
  • JD may be the MVP, but Joe Crede is the Second Coming of the Saviour. With two solo homers in clutch spots of the game, he broke out of the mini-slump he was in. One of the homers was reminiscent of Vlad. He hit a low (and I mean very low) and away curve ball that looked like it was no more than an inch or two off the left side of the batter's box. Did you get that? The LEFT side of the batter's box. If anyone is God, Hawk Harrelson, it's Joe Crede.
  • Can a group of guys be more overlooked for their yeoman's work than the bullpen? 3.2 innings of scoreless pitching. They're like a band-aid on a sore. You use them up, throw them away, and don't think about them again until you get hurt. They're the aspirin taken to sedate a headache. They're the M*A*S*H unit of a baseball team.
Awards time---------------------------------

Bad Ozzie Move of the Game: This is redundant, but starting Pods at all anymore is a mistake, lefty/ righty matchup be damned.

Good Ozzie Move of the Game: Pulling Freddy before he could choke away the lead for a second time in the game.

Play of the Game: JD's 3-run homer set the tone for the game.

Big Ups to the bullpen and JD

And my White Sox Player of the Game is.................





Joe Crede (12) Yes, he may have just saved the season again.



Sox Record: 74-52.....but the Twinkies win, too.

Game 126 Preview

Freddy "All I'm Askin' Is For Some Runs" Garcia 11-8, 4.87 for the ChiSox

vs.

Zach Miner 7-4, 4.15 for the Motor City Kitties

This is a rematch of Aug 13, when we beat the Tiggers 7-3.
Miner is 1-3 with a 7.00 ERA in his last 6 starts.

The Sox are...
losers of 6 of 8.
7.5 back in the division.
clinging to the slimmest of WC leads.
floundering instead of rising to the challenge
severely shortening my life span.

2 or 3 early runs would be ideal.

Lets go Sox...please!

Thome, Thome, Thome (chanted a la Toga) is my Pick to Click

I know it seems like there's no point to make a pick to click considering how badly everyone is struggling, but imagine how rewarding it'll feel to pick the player that breaks out of his slump...so readers make those picks to clicks as comments!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Buehrle Bile File Says, "I Think...." Game 125 Recap

I think The Buehrle Bile File has a few thoughts about Mark's recent performances.

I think Mark Buehrle must be hurting physically.

I think he must be feeling bad mentally too.

I think I should do something to help.

I think I'm gonna start a dance-based charitable benefit, a la Live Aid, for Mark so I can pay for research about what happened to his pitching.

I think I'm gonna call it "Breakin' for Buehrle".

I'm think I'm gonna invite Turbo and Ozone to demonstrate how to make things slide since Buehrle's slider is straight. Special K will be there to expound on how to actually K someone. I'm also gonna invite Mr. Wiggles to give lessons on doing "the Worm" cuz Mark can't worm out of a jam anymore. Then maybe Grandmaster Flash will come give a lecture on mixing and cutting cuz Mark is getting killed on the same pitch everytime instead of mixing it up and his cutter to righties just ain't cutting. A group question-and-answer session on teamwork will be led by The New York City Breakers about allowing your teammates to use their special talents, unlike Mark not allowing his fielders to catch the ball cuz of all the homeruns he's allowed lately. Crazy-Legs can show Mark how a headspin is like using your head by getting a-'head' of the hitters, and Lil' Lee will teach the value of the windmill/ penny as the go-to move and how it pertains to the lack of a go-to pitch for Mark.

I think to be a part of this historic charitable/ learning event, please send $4.87 to The Buehrle Bile File c/o ChiSoxBlog.com. The proceeds will go to feed a White Sox fan hungry for a win (specifically me.)

I think maybe that'll help the taste of bile in my mouth go away.

I think the benefit for Mark will be more a benefit for me so I won't hear a skewed version of "Margaritaville" in my head going..."Some people claim/ that there's an umpire to blame/ but I know/ it is Mark Buehrle's fault ."

I think after that, the Biler needs a drink.

Thanks, Mark.

(Update: It's now midnight and the the Buehrleville chorus is still ringing in my head compounded by my Cubs-fan friends' heckling. Tortured by a red-neck pitcher and Yippies. Robbing that liquor store don't look so bad right now.)

----------------------------------------------------

Short Recap...Sox Lose 4-0. (Is that short enough? Maybe a little more.)

  • Mark Buehrle sucks. (Was that succinct enough?)
  • Kenny Rogers is who Mark Buehrle wishes he could be. (4 hits, no runs, in 7.0 innings.)
  • Paulie, in the only real scoring chances, had two GIDPs. (I can't even type it out.)
  • Jim Thome, also in slumpsville.
  • Tiggers feel generous and give the Sox 3 errors.
  • White Sox also feel generous and add to Tiggers playoffs hopes by wasting those 3 errors.
  • Mark Buehrle sucks. (Yeah, I said it again.)
Awards time--------------------------------------

Bad Ozzie Move of the Game: I don't normally advocate violence, but he shoulda kicked homeplate umpire Dan Iassonga in the nuts. He didn't; too bad. I'm sure Ozzie thinks it was a bad idea to wake up this morning.

Good Ozzie Move of the Game: This actually goes to Joey Cora for not waving Paulie around in the 8th on a sharp BA single to CF. Paulie woulda been a dead duck. So much for pushing the envelope when you're down in a big game. Yep, this award is ripe with sarcasm.

Play of the Game: It was over after Paulie's GIDP in the first. The heads were down; the body language was depressed; and the Sox were thinking, "Not again, not again."

Big Ups to maybe MacDougal and McCarthy for holding the Tiggers where they were.

And my White Sox Player of the Games is.....................

You're gonna be waiting a long time if you think I'm nominating anyone after this heartless performance.

Sox Record : 73-52

The Buehrle Bile File Says, "Don't Have It Your Way!" Game 125 Preview

Mark Buehlre (L, 10-10, 4.80) for the Good Guys

vs.

Kenny Rogers (L, 12-6, 4.34) for the Bad Guys (the Tiggers of DeTwah)

The Buehrle Bile File
writers are a hungry bunch, and we'll snack on just about anything -- hotwings, cheerios, someone else's left-over nachos in a cinema -- but our personal favorite for a midnight snack is a big, juicy Whopper™. Just typing the word makes the mouth water and the stomach rumble with pleasure. We can just smell the flame-broiled goodness, the warm sesame-seeded bun, the tart pickles. And because Burger King® is all about the people, my Whopper™ comes w/cheese, no mayo, add mustard.

Ohhhh, to "Have It Your Way." What a concept for advertisment! What generosity! What idealistic thought!

What a lousy motto for a pitcher!

All hitters have sweet spots in their swing zones -- for lefties, down and in, for righties, middle-in. But almost all hitters to a man, whether they be lefty, righty, or switch hitter, will tell you that a high, slow change-up or a slow rolling curveball will make the mouth water and the stomach rumble with pleasure.

Most pitchers try to avoid throwing these pitches, but most good pitchers aren't named Mark Buehrle. Maybe Mark is a spokesman for Burger King® and is demonstrating the ad line in a unique way. Maybe he shares Burger King's® philosophy for giving people what they want when they want it. Whatever the case may be, the White Sox won't win many games if Mark continues to make hitters drool, and they certainly won't make the playoffs either if the Tiggers snack on Mark's pitching.

Who knows? If Mark has another bile-tastic outting, maybe Scott Reifert, Brooks Boyer and the White Sox PR department can convince Burger King® to do a promotion by changing the name on back of his jersey from Buehrle to the XFL-styled..........

"Have It Your Way"



My Pick to Click...god, this is tough...everyone is slumping...how about Alomar? He'll be a first for me.

Drop your PtC in the comments, readers.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Losin' Ugly: Game 124 Thoughts

Sox tank it and lose 1-7

-I'm going to start with the one bright spot for the Sox, and then we'll get right to the ugly things. Jermiane Dye hit homer numero 34 setting a career high.

-Here coooomes the ugly...

-Contreras has lost 5 of his last 7 and his ERA is over 4.50 since the All-Star Break. After todays performance, piss poor performance, his ERA is over 4; it's at 4.04. This was the second consecutive outing where Jose gave up 7 runs. Contreras is officially Matt Clement of last year, minus the whole getting hit in the head thing.

-Jose mysteriously struggled pitching out of the stretch. He only let up one hit out of the windup, an infield single at that. As soon as people got on base, (he hit two batters) he crapped out. Maybe he is getting tired like I suggested and can't get enough leg drive out of the stretch. Maybe we would have been better off with Adam Dursley.

-Detroit had lost nine of its previous 12 games, but managed to rebound and beat us. Typical, eh?

-The Sox only had one runner beyond first base prior to the ninth inning, and he didn't score.

-CS for Iguchi. We have to have the worst net SB numbers in the league. Yes, I quite possibly could have just made up the term net SB, but we suck at stealing bases. We may actually be worse at holding runners on though. Of course, Brandon Inge managed to steal on us.

-Neal Cotts came on and wanted to give up runs. He really did want to, but Perez grounded into a DP.

-Sox fall 6.5 back in the division and hold only a .5 lead in the WC.

-Our table-setter Podzilla, failed to get a hit. I can only count down the days 'til Sept 1, when we may see Ryan Sweeney.

-Doesn't it feel like it's been forever since McCarthy has pitched? Oh please, tell me that means Ozzie is gearing him up for a start.

Onto the awards...

Bad Ozzie Move of the Day - Pitching three relievers. This game was a lost cause; even the most optimistic fans (count me among them) knew this game was over. Why on earth did he burn through Thornton, Riske, and Cotts? He should have thrown only Riske out there.

Good Ozzie Move of the Day - Choosing to pitch Riske. He went 1 1/3 and only gave up one hit.

Big Ups of the Game to Riske and Crede. Riske was the only pitcher that performed up to snuff. Crede recorded the only two hit game for the Sox.

Sox Player of the Game - N/A

Game 124 Preview

Jose Contreras 11-5, 3.78 for the ChiSox

vs.

Justin Verlander 14-6, 3.14 for the Motor City Kitties

Jose stunk up the joint during his last start. He gave up 7 ER in 6 2/3 innings against the Royales with cheese, and ended up throwing 98 pitches.
I'm worried about Jose's arm, he has thrown a lot of innings since joining the Sox. I think Ozzie, in the future, needs to give him a shorter leash when he struggles. I don't want him to be tired by the end of the season.

We all know it's a big series. 4-game set. If the Sox sweep again, they're only 1.5 games back. If we get swept, we're 9.5 back. I know we're not getting swept, but this series could potentially kill us.

We've hit Verlander well. He 0-3 against us, and given up 15 ER in 12 2/3 innings. He's also struggled as of late. His ERA has steadily risen since hitting a season low of 2.69 on July 26.

GO SOX!

My pick to click is JD, Jermain Defoe! Oops, damn English soccer. I cleary mean our very own Jermaine Dye.

Readers - Make those pick to clicks right here and see you name on the leaderboard!

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Housekeeping

Some housekeeping issues...

(I want to hear what y'all have to say before I voice my opinion.)

How do we want to deal with recaps in the future?

I'm open to letting other people do some, and I'm open to doing all of them unless I need help.

How many picks to click do there need to be before we allow duplicates?

Deja Vu and Santanaria, Killed My Optimism: Game 123 Thoughts

Super Duper! (Yes, that's sarcasm.) Sox lose 3-7

-Note- I was very optimistic going into the game, but all that optimism was turned into sarcasm by the loss.

-Blame it on the jet-lag, blame it on a horrendously wrong gut-feeling, but I thought maybe, just maybe Javy would pull out the win against Johan. I thought the stars had aligned and we were going to win. I mean while watching the Rangers came back from a 6-0 deficit to beat the Motor City Kitties, I thought it was going to be that kind of night for the Sox too. I guess I'm going to blame it on the free cocktails; yes, that's what got me to believe Santana was going to slip up today; curse you Johnny Walker!

-I guess Santana did slip up, once. He surrendered a run scoring double to Tadahito. It was a damn fine piece of hitting by Gooch.

-Santana wasn't unhittable today. He looked damn near mortal at times, but the Sox failed to pounce and string together hits. The Sox only had three runners in scoring position against Santana and none of them reached third base.

-Javy slipped up once, too. It just happened to be prolonged along the course of one inning. BIG surprise. Seriously, this act is getting old. When I asked for an encore, I was talking about his performance against the Jays, not all his other rubbish starts.

-Today was yet another example of a Sox pitcher overcoming an error in the field. Oh wait, sorry, that was me being optimistic again. It turns out Javy blew up after Paulie's error. He gave up 4 runs in the third.

-You could make a case and say Javy pitched well outside of the third inning, but I've been there and done that about 10 times this season for Javy.

-I'm continually seeing flashes of pre-'05 Sox. Big bats, bad pitching, all the while pissing away winnable games.

-Good news - Neal Cotts didn't allow any inherited runners to score.
-Bad news - Neal Cotts had no inherited runners today, but still gave up two runs. Neal seems to be on a mission to have his ERA climb above 4.00; that's the only thing I can think of. He suddenly refuses to pitch well. Neal almost has me longing for Boone Logan.

-Cuddyer, Morneau, and Hunter killed us. Not surprised at all. We've all seen it happen before.

-Overall the Sox looked lifeless. I was surprised to get the one run, that we did early. I was praying that we could cling to that lead and pull out an '05-like 1-0 victory. As soon as the next half inning was done; I was positive we were going to lose. It's hard enough to beat Santana, but spot him a 4-1 lead and you're asking for trouble.

-We hit Rincon to the sound of two runs. Yippee!

-All of a sudden the Sox find themselves in a make or break series against the Tiggers. I think we all thought after the last Tiger series we were in good shape, but we fouled up an easy series against the Royales, a la the Red Sox, and sucked it up against the Twins.

-Good Ozzie Move of the Night - I liked the line up he put out there. I'm not thrilled about Crusty Alomar, but I don't mind taking out AJ the lefty.

-Bad Ozzie Move of the Night - Putting in Neal Cotts. The Sox had a small ray of hope after putting up two runs, but Cotts immediately stomped all over my hope.

-Big Ups of the Night and Player of the Game Honors to...




Tadahito Iguchi (7)








He was the only player that brought it today. All hail the Emperor.

Sox Record: 73-50

Game 123 Preview

Javy "Five & Dive" Vazquez (R, 11-7, 5.13) for the White Sox

vs.

Johan Santana (L, 14-5, 3.10) for the Land O' Lakes Twinkie-dinks

Sigh.
Can we have a matchup more ill-suited for a White Sox victory? Probably not.
Some quick Twinkie numbers: Twinkies at home -- 43-20 (MLB best); Santana at home -- 8-0, 2.48; Santana's last 5 vs. the Sox @ Metrodome -- 5-0, 0.73
Some quick Sox numbers: Javy vs. Twinkies 2006 -- 0-2, 9.26 (highest vs any AL team); Javy's 5th, 6th and 7th inning ERAs respectively -- 8.59, 10.42, 16.88
Channelling my inner Han Solo: "I have a bad feeling about this."

Pick-to-Clicks already in...
Red-hot Fornelli....Ozuna...he's only the Sox best hitter vs. Johan
Mr. Kelley...JD...
James...Gooch...sorry pander, but I gotta hunch

Readers, readers, readers, post a Pick-to-Click; win a chicken dinner with Jeeves. Okay, not really.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

It's Official. Jon Garland IS the White Sox Ace: Game 122 Thoughts

That's a White Sox Winner: 4-1!

So what taboos did the Twinkie-dinks offend to have the baseball gods rain down their wrath in such buckets of embarrassment?

Did they finally sour on that hell of a ballpark, the Metrodome? Maybe, cuz neither Luis Castillo nor Gold Glover Torii Hunter could locate a towering Jim Thome pop up that went for a double.

Did they seethe over Brad Radke's pitching so well for so long with a torn labrum? Maybe; Mack crushed a man-sized homer into the the upper tank over the baggie in RF.

Did they finally punish the unnatural speed ground balls have on the trampoline-like turf? Maybe; a seemingly rountine throw by SS Jason Bartlett was rushed and thrown away, and Nick Punto had an Oscar-worthy performance portraying Bill Buckner as a 3rd baseman on a Mack grounder right between his legs.

Did they steal playoff hopes from the hearts of Twins fans cuz of the past year's contraction talk? Maybe; the TV guys said they'd never seen so many Sox fans in the Metrodome.

Did they invoke the curse of really bad baseball for all the chickie love Joe Mauer is receiving? Maybe; the MVP candidate was 0-3.

And conversely why the baseball gods chose to bless White Sox baseball is questionable too considering the chemistry-disturbing actions of late.

The tell-tale, creme de la creme sign that providence settled on the Southside guys happened in the bottom of the 8th when with a man on 1st and 2 outs Castillo hit a sure double past a diving Joe Crede down the line only to have it deflect off the 3rd base umpire right to Juan Uribe. Instead of having a heart-crushing, possible run-scoring 2B or at least runners on 2nd and 3rd, it was simply 1st and 2nd, and Thornton punked Punto for the final out of the inning. Mild threat quashed.

The gods must really love Jon "I-AM-the-Staff-Ace" Garland cuz he gave up no earned runs and even pitched around his own throwing error to Paulie in the 1st inning.

The gods also delivered outside of Minnesota as both Boston and the Tiggers lost and are starting to swoon.

Maybe destiny -- cue the creepy music -- has returned to Southside; maybe the Sox are about to go on a big run.

Ask me tomorrow about destiny after we face Johan Santana.

Awards time------------------

Bad Ozzie Move of the Game: Not calling out his bitch-baby in-law Freddy Garcia before the game for throwing his teammates under the bus by his comments yesterday. Kinda flawless game execution. Of course, he wasn't called on to manage that much.

Good Ozzie Moves of the Game: Jenks, baby! Jenks! Mack didn't look lost in CF and even rewarded his manager's faith with a long solo shot.

Play of the Game: The 1st inning Thome pop-up that was lost in the ceiling started the weirdness.

Big Ups go to Jenks, Thome for 2 hustle 2Bs, and Crede for his solid defense at 3rd.

By the way, Fornelli, what's your secret? Big ups to you too.

And my White Sox Player of the Game...




Jon Garland (6)




White Sox Record: 73-49...5.5 behind the Tiggers & 2.0 ahead of the Twinkie-dinks in the WC!

Game 122 Preview

Jon "The-Default-Ace-of-the-Staff" Garland (R, 13-4, 4.98) for the Palehose

vs.

Brad Radke (R, 12-8, 4.48) for the Minnesota Twinkie-dinks

Radke is hot. 5-1 with a 2.80 era in seven starts since the AS break including a win against the Sox.
Did I mention he's pitched all that time with a torn labrum?
Garland rebounded from his first loss in 11 starts last time out to pitch a one run gem against KC.
Did I mention the Twinkie-dinks have the best home record in all of baseball?
Oh, they have the worst field ever too. Just ask Mike Ditka.

Pick-to-Clicks already in...
Fornelli...Thome...by the way, Fornelli's on roll
Dickdastick...Pods...at least I think he took him
tx via chicago...Gooch...see pander, the early bird...
James...I'm going with Joe Crede...gotta snap him outta his slump

Can we get a whole lineup of Pick-to-Clicks? We can if you post it in the comments. It's open to anyone and everyone.

Michael J. Fox Said They Had To Do It Without the Wolf: Game 121 Thoughts

Sox Lose: 3-7...bummer.

From the graveyard of kitschy '80s movies comes a pitcher whom the White Sox could not beat. Boof "Teen-Wolf-is-my-lover" Bonser held the Sox bats in check for the most part, and cry-baby Freddy Garcia said, "no wolf for you," as he gave up the lead three times in the Twinkies comeback victory.

This game had all the earmarkings of a big time heavyweight boxing match with the teams trading punches in the first half of the game. But when Torri Hunter yanked a 6th inning homerun, his 4th off Freddy in his career, the White Sox were down for the count. (If that's a cliched metaphor, oh well. That's honestly what watching the game felt like.)

Quick note to self: when Neal Cotts comes in the game with inherited runners, they will always score.

In hindsight, Cotts didn't that pitch poorly. In the 7th after a Punto single with one out, Neal was called on and struck-out the newest wonderboy, Joe Mauer, and then intentionally walked Cuddyer to pitch to Justin Morneau, he of the .318 average, 31 hr's and 108 rbis. (How this guy is not in the MVP discussion is a mystery to me). Unfortunately Morneau's 2-run single was a severe jam-shot to swallow CF that BA just couldn't reach -- as true a ducksnort as you'll ever see. Cotts then IBBed Hunter before striking out Kubel to end the inning.

Speaking of BA, the yin and yang of baseball -- and the trampoline that is the Humphrey-dome carpet -- reared its ugly head when the defensive hero of the last game with KC committed his first error on the season getting too close to Morneau's ducksnort that bounced off the turf, his glove then his shoulder and past him into centerfield. How the baseball gods are fickle.

Not much else good happened. JD did homer to give us the lead in the 4th. (What new? Why JD isn't part of more national MVP talk is also a mystery.) And Paulie delivered an rbi single in the 6th. The only other significant chance the sox had in the game, 2nd & 3rd with 2 outs in the 3rd inning, went the way of left-over dinner slop: down the drain.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a few things about the state of the team's chemistry right now. In Cheat's recap of last night's game he mentions that the team is starting to show some cracks in that quasi-scutinized aspect of the game. First Javy Vazquez and now Freddy Garcia have tweaked the offense saying you can't win if you don't score. To that I say: Aren't the Sox the leading run producers in all of MLB? Freddy's hissy-fit in the dugout last night surely didn't endear him to Neal Cotts or any other reliever for that matter; maybe Ozzie needs to bend him over his knee and spank him for the spoiled brat that he is. And now there's word that Crusty Alomar, Jr., and AJ had a spat over an article in which Crusty said he was gonna knock out AJ. Crusty claims he said it in jest (and the editor of the ESPN the Magazine article acknowledges the misunderstanding saying the publication played it as a straight quote instead of the joke it was -- fucking media troublemakers), and supposedly they sqwashed it, but in a locker room under intense pressure to win any spark could lead to dissention which could lead to schisms which could lead to... BLAH BLAH BLAH.

Okay, I'm not the first to write about the subject and my view is certainly not unique, but in the world of baseball, chemistry, in my humble opinion, is overrated. The games aren't like basketball where no-look passes are more of the feel and sense variety and pick and rolls need two people to be in tune with exactly what the other is doing. The games certainly aren't like football where words like gang-tackling, zone blitzes, safety valve passes and run blocking all conjure up images of 11 different guys doing intricate jobs to the achievement of one goal. In baseball, 99% of the defensive plays will involve 3 fielders or less. To wit: According to Snobs vs. Slobs, "...Of all the plate appearances in MLB so far this year (more than 138,000), only 2,853 of them resulted in a double play. That’s less than one percent of the PAs that turn into double plays." The most isolated person in all of team sports is a batter at the plate (unless you're a kicker and you just missed a game-winning 30-yard field goal as time expires.) Baseball rarely uses team huddles, time outs or specialty plays that require every player on the field's participation. And spare me the semantics lessons; I know you can call time out and from time to time the infield will huddle, but these occurances don't evoke team chemistry but rather game pace. In fact, in professional baseball unless you're the hitting coach, you never -- and I mean never -- pat a guy on the fanny after making a non-productive out, especially a strikeout. Why? Because hitting is such a personal, intimate thing tha no amount of ass-grabbing comradrerie is gonna make it any easier or harder.

Hopefully the certain ensuing media storm will pass. Maybe Ozzie will run into Jay Mariotti or Andy Van Slyke at some restaurant and offer them a glass of wine only to have it tossed back in his face leading to a Gold Coast riot. Phil Rogers and Rick Telander will then have something else to drivel about.

Hey! Did I mention the Bears won their preseason tilt over the Chargers? Oh, wait, this is a White Sox blog.

Fever gone. Onto the game awards.

Bad Ozzie Move of the Game: not sacrificing a live chicken to the baseball gods before the game.

Good Ozzie Move of the Game: not sacrificing a live chicken to the baseball gods before the game for sanitary reasons. Santeria is fine practiced in the privacy of your own home.

Play of the Game: Funny. Hero one night, goat the next. BA's gaffe on the Morneau ducksnort sapped the life out of the Sox last night. Then again, not funny.

Big Ups of the Game go to Pods for NOT getting thrown out on an attempted steal. Sad. Just sad.

And my White Sox Player of the Game is....




Jermaine Dye (13)




His homerun was about the only good thing that happened in this game.

Sox Record: 72-49 Only 1 up in the WC over the Twinkies and still 6.5 behind the Tiggers in the division.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Game 121 Preview

Freddy Garcia, R, 11-7, 4.78 ERA for the White Sox

vs

Boof Bonser, R, 2-4, 5.56 ERA for the Twinkies

Well, if big game Freddy can't get up for our nearest competitor in the Wild Card race who also happens to be a divisional foe, then he can't get up for any game. Big big big series...big big big next 7 games on the road. I kinda feel these next 7 games will determine the White Sox's fate this year. But that's just my opinion.

My Pick to Click...Jim Thome
Pander's default pick for the rest of the year...Tadahito Iguchi.

Post your pick in the comments. And Go Sox!

Thursday, August 17, 2006

The Buehrle Bile File: Making History: Game 120 Thoughts

Sox really win a nailbiter: 5-4!

Game Notes then The Bile File ---

  • What do Mark Buehrle, Odalis Perez, David DeJesus, Pablo Ozuna, Emil Brown and Jermaine Dye all share in common? That combination of players earns the distinction of an MLB first: 1st and 2nd inning lead-off homeruns by both teams. Never ever has that happened before. And I regurgitated dim sum twice because of it.
  • The double play is truly a pitcher's best friend. The White Sox turned 5 inning-ending DP's today including a bases-loaded, game-ending 5-3 off the bat of Sox killer Mike Sweeney. Think about this for a second. Out of 9 innings, 5 DPs, count 'em -- 5!, ended innings. That's a lot of baserunners and a lot of clutch pitching.
  • Ozzie said it best in his post game interview, "Grudz must be mad at me for not taking him to the All-Star game." His average against the Sox this year: .390, in this series: 8-17. All-Star indeed.
  • Bad Ozzie Move of the Game: Not pitching the lefty Thorton to Teahan in the 8th who hit a pressure-inducing hr against Macdougal. I doubt Mike Mac will be available tomorrow against the Twins.
  • Good Ozzie Move of the Game: Pinch running Pods for Thome after a 2 out walk in the 8th. He scored on a hit-n-run by the next batter, Paulie Konerko.
  • Play of the Game: This is without debate. With one out and men on 1st and 2nd, BA stops DeJesus's 9th inning rbi 2B from reaching the left-centerfield wall forcing Berroa -- the tying run! -- to stop at third. I defy anyone to tell me someone in a Sox uniform could have gotten to that ball as quickly as BA did. It flat out saved the game and it wasn't even a putout or an assist. These things just don't show up in the boxscore. I almost wanna give BA the PotG for that play alone.
  • Big Ups to JD, Pablo and Mark Buerhle (That was pleasant and painful to type all at the same time.)
  • Before the spine-bubbles in the 9th, I was kinda leaning toward giving Jenks the PotG award cuz he's gone somewhat overlooked by us here at ChiSox Blog (only 1 PotG), but after making us sweat, Paulie gets the nod instead as my White Sox Player of the Game with some very clutch hitting today, 2-4, 2 rbi.



Paul Konerko (9)




Sox Record: 72-48! WC lead is 2.0 on the Twinkies, and 6.5 behind Detroit in the Division.
-----------------------------------------
The Buehrle Bile File says...

Mark must have gotten wind of our Bile File plans. He must have wanted to stay away from the 10,000 marbles Jeeves was bringing back from England with him...

So guess what?

Mark Buehrle is now our best friend, or didn't you know? What a great guy and an even greater pitcher! He's always so efficient in his game pace, pitch selection and situational execution. He's now on pace to be -- hold your breath -- a .500 pitcher on the season! And -- wait for it -- he's an All-Star too! And his ERA is now -- gasp -- a paltry 4.80! While we're at it, he's on a one game winning streak -- his first in 9 straight starts!

In a voice only Hawk Harrelson would love, his troubles are O-V-E-R, Over!

Well, he did give up 2 more homeruns, but they were both of the lead-off variety -- so he had that going for him. He did give up 6 hits and 3 walks, but negated them with a pick off and 3 double plays -- so he had that going for him too. And he had a manager who again recognized when Mark was done for the day -- that was probably the best thing he had going for him!

He can also say he was better than the Count was yesterday. Braggin' rights over the Royals; now there's a badge of honor. We really shouldn't tease the Royals like that. Even the Tiggers only scored 3 runs on Mark last time out.

Yes, the homers were bile-tastic especially when one of them IS ON THE FIRST PITCH OF THE GAME!!! And all the baserunners really sucked, but Buehrle was less bile-tastic than normal. And we tip our caps to him for stopping the bleeding. This was excrutiating and fun at the same time. It's all good for now!

But we still have our eyes on you, Mark!

Biler Out!

The Buehrle Bile File: Game 120 Preview

Odalis Perez, L, 4-4, 6.54 ERA for the Kansas City Royals

Vs.

Mark Buehrle, L, 9-10, 4.87 ERA for the ChiSox


The Buehrle Bile File writers would like to warn White Sox fans about the filth of mediocrity. How it infects a group of people. How it dispirits them. How it drags them down. How it haunts their thoughts and dreams and eventually renders them useless and impotent…

But not this group of bloggers.

We like to think of ourselves in the scene from Animal House where Bluto starts listing the names of the Alpha Beta's he's gonna kill...

(The names have been changed to implicate the guilty parties.)

James: What the fuck happened to the White Sox pitchers I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you James, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Buehrle, he's a dead man! Garcia, dead! Vazquez...

A bloody and bruised Jeeves interrupts: Dead! James’s right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.

James: We're just the bloggers to do it.

DickdaStick: Let’s do it.

Pander: LET’S DO IT!

All the ChiSox Blog Posters: LET’S DO IT!

Bile-style pitchers, please make us be wrong or your doom awaits.


As always, readers, post your picks to click in the comments section.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Gluttony Is One of the 7 Deadly Sins, Isn't It: Game 119 Thoughts

Sox Lose: 10-4, and it wasn't that close.

Sitting at home, watching a sporting event on the telly, one tends to emote within the ebb and flow of the game. Too bad there was no ebb or flow in tonight's White Sox team. They were thoroughly battered in every phase of the game.

And I watched every excrutiating minute of it.

I sat in front of my PC, TV and AT&T and devoured every error, strikeout, wild pitch and flyout. I didn't miss a single hit, run or bunt that Jose Contreras and Neal Cotts gave up. I caught every swing of the suddenly almighty Mark Grudzadjfhiiouwfk as he barely missed the cycle by a double, a measely double. (He probably didn't eat a whole bowl of Wheaties this morning.) I witnessed every Mack misplay in CF, every first-pitch swing by AJ, every long, harmless flyball by Joe Crede. I even heard the home plate umpire yell at Reggie Sanders to "get the heck back in the batter's box" cuz he was holding up the game.

So what's next?

Time for confession.

Me: Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It's been 10 months since my last confession. I've been stuffing my face with awful baseball, listening to two terrible cronies wax philosophical about putting something on the board. I've inhaled putrid pitching, drank in bad baserunning, and chowed on futile fielding. I've become obese on Ozzie's questionable line-up moves, bogged down from baffling batting, and just plain full of watching bad baseball. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, Father.

Father Babe Ruth: Don't worry about it, kid. Yah can't win 'em all. Now go out and eat five hotdogs, drink 5 beers and kiss 5 dames, and all will be forgotten. It worked for me, kid. Yah can't let the sins of one game affect the party of the same night. So get to it, kid. **Wink, Wink**

------------------------------------

Bad Ozzie Move of the Game: (I'm gonna limit myself to just two for this game.)
  1. Not starting a very hot hitting Brian Anderson. Not only did I lose my pick to click, but his and my replacement, Rob Mackowiak, had 3 strikeouts and 2 misreads in CF. I have a new knickname for Mack: The King of the Right-Angle Route cuz he is always making a ninety degree turn when balls art hit over his head.
  2. Leaving Count in as long as he did could only hurt his arm. 98 pitches were way too many for a pitcher whose innings over the last two seasons including playoffs have skyrocketed in comparison to previous years of his career. The Sox have the most underused bullpen in the bigs, and overusing Contreras will only hurt down the road.
Good Ozzie Move of the Game: I actually didn't mind the using of all his lefthanded bats (the exception being Mack for BA). Complaining about the warning issued by the homeplate ump was wise too. There was no call for the warning, and Ozzie was right to be upset. I'm actually surprised he didn't get himself thrown out of the game cuz it was awful to watch.

Big Ups of the Game...Paulie for 3 hits, Mike MacDougal for still dominating (although I have no idea why Ozzie even used him), and Alex Cintron for salvaging some pride for this team by hitting a grand slam in the 9th.

And My White Sox Person of the Game...



Roger Bossard...cuz the field looked good if the product on it did not!



Sox Record: 71-48 6.5 behind Detroit in the Division and 1.0 ahead of the Twinkies in the WC.

Game 119 Preview

Adam "Who the F#$% Is This Guy" Bernero, R, 0-1, 10.57 ERA for the KC Royals

vs.

Jose "The Count" Contreras, R, 11-4, 3.53 ERA for the Chicago White Sox

Actually Bernero has 5 starts in his career against the White Sox. Where was I?
Let's all thank God, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Confucious, Satan, L. Ron Hubbard, dung beetles, the Great Spirit in the Sky, a one-legged hooker named Hope -- whomever the deity of your choice is -- that the Count is on the mound today so if there's a carryover of yesterday's sleepwalk, at least there'll be some decent pitching until the offense awakes .

My Pick to Click...I'm gonna see how BA's hot stick works for me. (Eeeewww. The fog on my monitor is playing havoc with my descriptive abilities.)

Post those picks to click in the comment section, readers.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Game 118 Preview

Runelvyz Hernandez, R, 2-7, 8.15 ERA for the Kansas City Royals

vs,

Javier "I'm Getting Better At This" Vazquez, R, 11-6, 5.13 ERA for the Chicago (still) White (hot) Sox

I was able to catch a little of Boers & Bernstein (The SCORE AM 670 here in Chicago) yesterday, and I'm gonna paraphrase something they said, "If Fatboy (Hernandez) gets out of the first without giving up 12 runs, the Royals will consider that a victory."
And with that, have you seen Hernandez's ERA? Oh, and in his last two starts against the Sox: 7.2 innings, 14 earned runs.

My Pick to Click...even though he's kinda hurting from what I've read...Jim Thome
Jeeves chimes in from England and is going with...Paulie Konerko


Thanks again to Pander for a great read on last night's game. If you haven't checked it out, it's the post below this one. Also, new and old readers alike, get those Picks-to-Click in by posting them in the Comments section. If you're new, we'll add you to the sidebar on the right.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Shit Fire and You'll Save Matches: Game 117 Thoughts

Sox Win: 12-2! I repeat, Sox Win: 12-2!

From what I understand there was a fire near the ballpark tonight, and the smoke was pouring into the Cell. What I couldn't tell was if it was heat residue from the White Sox offense, or if the Royals' pitching staff was committing mass suicide by fire. Let me run this down, boxscore-style, and you'll see what I mean...
  1. Leading off, and being the most ineffectual hitter of the night, Pablo Ozuna goes 0-5 with an rbi.
  2. Tadahito Iguchi: 1-5, run, rbi
  3. Jim Thome: 2-4, 2 run hr, 2 runs, k...Thomer's replacement, Crusty Alomar, Jr.: 0-1
  4. Paulie Konerko: 2-5, 2B, run
  5. Jermaine Dye: 1-1, run, hbp...JD's replacement, Ross Gload: 2-3, 2B, run, k
  6. AJ Pierzynski: 2-4, 2 runs, 2 rbi
  7. Joe Crede: 1-3, 2B, run, 2 rbi...Clutch's replacement, Rob Mackowiak: 1-1, run, rbi
  8. Juan Uribe: 1-4, rbi
  9. Brian Anderson: 3-3, hr, 2 runs, 2 rbi, bb
Totals: 16-39, 12 runs/rbis, 2 hr, 3 2B, 1 bb, 2 k

For Christ's sake, I think everyone's Pick to Click clicked!!!!

Yeah, this game was all about the offense. So the throwing error by AJ (which shoulda been charged to Gooch) and the two consecutive misplays by Pablo at 3rd (neither of which scored) were nothing but gravy. I could get used to games like this.

One more person on fire was Jon Garland. He was masterful against the improving/ woeful (which exactly is it?) Kansas City Royals for 7 innings giving up one run. Riske and McCarthy were able to get in some work as well, McCarthy being the victim of a solo blast in the 9th. By that time, however, most of the Sox were in the showers and most of the fans were drunk enough not to care.

Bad Ozzie Move of the Game: Did the cameras catch him picking his butt with his pencil hand? Bad, Ozzie. Bad, bad, bad Ozzie.

Good Ozzie Move of the Game: 12-2 pretty much means everything Ozzie did was correct. I like that he got alot of playing time for guys like Gload, Pablo and Mack. I also have to commend him for keeping his players focused after the Tiggers left town. This coulda been a let-down game, but the only thing the Sox let down were gamblers taking the under in this one.

Big Ups of the Game goes to the entire lineup. I can't single any one player out cuz even our worst performer still had an rbi.

My White Sox Player of the Game is Jon Garland...on a night of an explosive offense, it was his pitching that set the tempo of the game even when the hitters didn't come thru in the 2nd inning.




Jon Garland (5)





Sox Record: 71-46...5.5 games behind Tiggers in the division and 3.0 games up on Twins & Boston in the WC!

Game 117 Preview

Mark Redman, L, 7-6, 5.49 ERA for the Kansas City Royals

vs,

Jon Garland, R, 12-4, 5.16 for the Chicago White (Hot) Sox

So, is this letdown time? Is this the time for deep breath? Can the home team take the visitors lightly? Yeah, maybe not since the Sox are only 8-4 (only?!?) against the improving Royals. It seems worse, but the Tiggers were 11-1 against the Royals, and if the Sox want to make up anymore ground, they're gonna have to beat teams not name the Tiggers. Well, this is a good place to start.

My Pick to Click....against the lefty...Paul Konerko

You know what to do, guys. And to any new readers, feel free to add your own "Pick to Click" to the Comments section of this post. Go Sox!

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Detroit Tiggers, You Ain't Nobdy: Game 116 Thoughts

Sox Finish the Sweep: 7-3!!!

-Oh, happy days are here again! I haven't been this excited about White Sox baseball since April. With today's win the Sox are now just 5.5 games outta first, and no matter what any other team does they'll remain on top of the Wild Card race.

-Freddy Garcia seemed primed to have a bad day after another double play wasn't turned in the first. He looked very hitable the first 4 or 5 innings but grinded it out. The 6th and 7th innings he was downright dirty to the Tiggers. I can live with 3 earned in 7 innings from Freddy.

-The Sox bats initially did a nice job with Miner, being patient and working the count. Two walks in the 2nd led to 3 total runs that inning. They had a sac-fly and sac-bunt that both helped score runs.

-Kudos to the non-3-4-5-6-7 hitters. Five hits and 5 rbis! (JD did have a huge late-inning HR!)

-One smart Tigger move: Carlos Guillen grabbed Ivan Rodrigez before he could tear out the homeplate umpire's throat for calling him out on a nasty MacDougal curveball.

-Bad Ozzie Move: The CS (caught stealing) is killing us. Two more today against Ivan have put us below a 66% success rate.

-Good Ozzie Move(s): Alex Cintron! Pablo, the pinch-hitting pixie! I'm gonna give him credit for staying with and then pulling Freddy at the right time. And if it weren't for Uribe getting in BA's way in the 9th, Thornton was primed for the save. Jenks was typically terrifying to opposing hitters.

-I just wanna say that Kenny Williams' under-the-radar trade for Mike MacDougal is looking to be a steal. Between him and Thornton, it's been a banner year for acquiring relief pitchers. Had we MacDougal since spring training, sans Politte, we aren't talking about 5.5 games out of first.

-Big Ups to the bullpen again. That's gettting to be a happily redundant statement. Pablo! (By the way, the White Sox lead the AL in pinch hitting.) BA is getting better.

-And my White Sox Player of the Game is Pander's default Pick to Click...




Alex 'Absolut-ely Awesome' Cintron (5)...2-4, 3 rbis including a clutch, 2 out bases clearing double and a first inning triple.

White Sox Record: 70-46!
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