The Buehrle Bile File: Game 115 Thoughts

This is NOT your typical ChiSox Blog recap!

Let me skim over a few things about the game before the Biler has his way with Mr. Buehrle...

• Kenny Rogers was filthy to the Sox. He had just about everyone off balance changing speeds, throwing fastballs when the hitters expected curves, change-ups when they expected fastballs, you know, doing all the things a pitcher is supposed to do. And who said this guy was struggling? He gave up NO, count 'em, NO earned runs. Bastard!
• The Tiggers played like kittens, though, not giving The Gambler any help. Brandon "A-Rod" Inge and Carlos Guillen both had errors of epic proportions leading to all the Sox runs. Yes, all the runs the Sox scored were unearned.
  
• Jim Leyland is not to be trifled with. He is old skool, baby, and he made Ozzie look silly by pitching out on an Uribe attempted suicide squeeze. Sprinting down the line from third, Joe Crede could be heard in Kankakee when he looked up and said, "OH SHIT! This is gonna end badly!"
• New maddening player of the week: Juan Uribe. His failure to turn a double play led to all of Detroit's runs in the fifth. Then to make up for it, he smacks an rbi double in the bottom of the fifth. He did however provide a little comic relief. On the next double play chance, he fielded a grounder, scowled at and waived off Gooch, sprinted to second, and launched a missle to first that would have scared NORAD. I could just hear the pitchers in the dugout saying, " There goes his rotator cuff."
  
• Bad Ozzie Move: This has been debated, but I'm sticking to my guns. The squeeze itself was fine, but he should have called it on the second pitch of the Uribe atbat. I knew it was coming, the announcers knew it was coming, and Leyland obviously knew it was coming.
• Good Ozzie Move: Everything else. He used the bullpen to perfection. Crusty Alomar, Jr., had the GW RBI sac-fly. He removed Buehrle at the right time. If Ozzie were talking about himself he'd say, "Dis keed, he wuz bery bery guut, todey."
• Big Ups to The Bullpen. I could get used to giving that to them every game.
• My White Sox Player of the Game is Brian Anderson (4). Kid came thru with a clutch 2 out, 2 rbi hit to tie the game. And he is silky smooth in centerfield. He makes it look effortless.
  
• By the way, did I forgot to mention the White Sox won the game, 4-3? Yeah, they did.
• Sox record: 69-46, 6.5 games behind Detroit in the Central and 2 games up on Boston in the WC.
  

Now, we here at the Buehrle Bile File are not above admittimg when we're wrong. In fact we've been wrong about many things. We thought Zima would be around forever. We thought shaving lines in our hair and french-cuffing our pants was cool. We thought the Smashing Pumpkins would never break up. We even thought OJ was guilty. (Twelve moronic regular citizen told us we were wrong.) Dont even let me tell you how bad we bombed in the junk-bond market. Being wrong is a part of life, and it'll happen again.

But not this time.

After Mark's first four innings we were preparing a retraction statement, a missive on how doubt can corrupt and ruin lives, how it can lead a man to kill. You see, seven of his first ten outs were via the strike out, a season high! And he picked off Polanco at first. Ah, but we were only doubting ourselves. And as soon as Uribe flubbed the Thames double play ball, a sick maniacal smile came over our face.

Then came the bile.

The next batter, lefty Sean Casey, he of the one homer and .200 average since joining the Tiggers, golfed (and I literally mean golfed --it looked like a wedge outta the sand) a rolling curve ball into the right field stands. Next batter Inge singles, and lefty Granderson follows with an rbi double (on a rolling curve ball again), and the Tiggers led 3-0. Yeah, he fell apart again. Damn.

Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn!

Mark was pus the next inning, and were it not for the comedic Uribe turning the 6-3 double play, more runs woulda scored. He started falling behind every hitter, and he lost all confidence in his pitches. Ozzie saved Mark from himself by pulling him after the sixth. (We love you, Oz!)

How he got hurt by the lefties is a mystery to me. Overconfidence, maybe? Yeah, from a pitcher who's 0-6 in his last seven starts? I hope not, or he's in serious denial.

How he fell apart mentally after the botched double play is a mystery too. He had Crusty to stroke him along, and he is a back-woods kinda guy. Maybe Crusty's Deliverance-inspired hand holding wasn't enough.

The biggest mystery though is how the Tiggers struck out seven times to his junk. If we were the Tiggers we would blame it on the glare of a day game. (It was bothering us just watching it on televison.) And they should be embarrassed.

So not figuring into the decision Mark has to wait another five days to see if he can stop the tarp-slide he's on. Or maybe he should ask Ozzie just to start him in day games. At least the other team then has an excuse for losing to a guy who is 0-6 in his last eight starts.

Biler out!