A Few Steps Short of Perfection: Game 146 Thoughts
Sox Cruise to a 9-0 victory!
-The biggest story of the day was Freddy's run at perfection. Freddy mowed down the first 23 batters he faced. There were only a few sharply hit balls. The only ones that stand out to me are a deep fly by Anderson that BA caught a hair in front of the wall and a liner that Paulie snared. Other than those, Freddy really kept the Angels off balance. He had all his off-speed stuff and reached back occasionally to throw a good, strong (for Freddy) fastball. I know people are going to say bull, but I really had a bad feeling about Kennedy when he came up. He fought off a tailing fastball on a full count and singled sharply to second.
-The Sox offense were pretty close to perfection as well. They put up 9 runs without even hitting a homer. Every Sox starter except Pablo had a hit. Paulie showed up big time today with a 4-4 effort. The Sox seemed destined for mediocrity again. Saunders breezed through the first, but we got to him in the second and that hammered him in the third after Sandy lined a hit off of him.
-The only blemishes on the game were a single by Kennedy and a severe lack of hustle by some players. Tadahito Iguchi had a fine day at the plate, but mentally he didn't seem to be all there. He doubled in the third, but easily could have stretched it into a triple. That wasn't the only mental cramp of the game by Gooch. Later in the game Gooch was a few steps of scoring when he suddenly stopped. "2 outs, Gooch on second Thome on 1st Paulie hits a single in right center and Gooch rounded third and just stopped for no reason whatsoever as everyone was screaming at him to go home, but he just stood there like a deer in the headlights" (Quote from James). It was bizarre, I can't begin to understand what happened. It was either a point shaving scam and he was helping out a bookie, or he got into Freddy's stash before the game.
-On the opposite side of the spectrum Paulie hustled home from first to score on Crede's double and BA stretched a single into a double. Pablo, although he didn't get a hit, really impressed me today. He was absolutely high tailing it down the line every single time he put the ball in play. He very nearly came away with two infield hits just on pure hustle along.
Onto the awards............................
Bad Hawk Move of the Game: Saying Freddy was perfect through 7. Of course the next inning the perfect game was over. Not that i'm superstitious.
Good Ozzie Move of the Game: Good lineup choice by Ozzie vs the lefty.
Play of the Game: Kennedy's single. It wasn't good for us, but it ruined Freddy's chance at history.
Big Ups of the Game: To the offense. 'Nuff said.
Sox Player of the Game
Freddy Garcia (2)
Sox Record: 84-62
PS - Twins lose 1-0 AND more importantly lose Liriano to an elbow injury.
PSS - Tigers lose 11-3!
-The biggest story of the day was Freddy's run at perfection. Freddy mowed down the first 23 batters he faced. There were only a few sharply hit balls. The only ones that stand out to me are a deep fly by Anderson that BA caught a hair in front of the wall and a liner that Paulie snared. Other than those, Freddy really kept the Angels off balance. He had all his off-speed stuff and reached back occasionally to throw a good, strong (for Freddy) fastball. I know people are going to say bull, but I really had a bad feeling about Kennedy when he came up. He fought off a tailing fastball on a full count and singled sharply to second.
-The Sox offense were pretty close to perfection as well. They put up 9 runs without even hitting a homer. Every Sox starter except Pablo had a hit. Paulie showed up big time today with a 4-4 effort. The Sox seemed destined for mediocrity again. Saunders breezed through the first, but we got to him in the second and that hammered him in the third after Sandy lined a hit off of him.
-The only blemishes on the game were a single by Kennedy and a severe lack of hustle by some players. Tadahito Iguchi had a fine day at the plate, but mentally he didn't seem to be all there. He doubled in the third, but easily could have stretched it into a triple. That wasn't the only mental cramp of the game by Gooch. Later in the game Gooch was a few steps of scoring when he suddenly stopped. "2 outs, Gooch on second Thome on 1st Paulie hits a single in right center and Gooch rounded third and just stopped for no reason whatsoever as everyone was screaming at him to go home, but he just stood there like a deer in the headlights" (Quote from James). It was bizarre, I can't begin to understand what happened. It was either a point shaving scam and he was helping out a bookie, or he got into Freddy's stash before the game.
-On the opposite side of the spectrum Paulie hustled home from first to score on Crede's double and BA stretched a single into a double. Pablo, although he didn't get a hit, really impressed me today. He was absolutely high tailing it down the line every single time he put the ball in play. He very nearly came away with two infield hits just on pure hustle along.
Onto the awards............................
Bad Hawk Move of the Game: Saying Freddy was perfect through 7. Of course the next inning the perfect game was over. Not that i'm superstitious.
Good Ozzie Move of the Game: Good lineup choice by Ozzie vs the lefty.
Play of the Game: Kennedy's single. It wasn't good for us, but it ruined Freddy's chance at history.
Big Ups of the Game: To the offense. 'Nuff said.
Sox Player of the Game
Freddy Garcia (2)
Sox Record: 84-62
PS - Twins lose 1-0 AND more importantly lose Liriano to an elbow injury.
PSS - Tigers lose 11-3!
posted by Jeeves at 5:59 PM
6 Comments:
Love the change up! Bad Hawk Move indeed!
Farmio and Singleton mentioned that they didn't jinx it and alluded to Hawk, saying "somebody else may have, but we didn't."
It's funny that the past few weeks we've all been looking for the big offensive game that would propel us into an extended groove, but maybe what we really needed was a pitching performance to do it. Think about it. Last year, when the pitchers were rolling into the postseason, they were challenging each other to outperform each other and it culminated with the historic complete games streak when it mattered most. I hope the arms respond to Freddy's gem today in a similar way.
Liriano going down is huge. The Tiggers are imploding. Let's Go Go Go White Sox!
Tigers down 4-0 in the 4th.
make that 7-3 Tex in the 5th
I forgot to note...9 of the last 10 games we've had quality starts from our starters.
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