Results tagged ‘ Yankees ’
The Red Sox are Coming! The Red Sox are Coming!
You think that you have problems? Take a look for a moment at the Bobby Valentine Red Sox.
Although they just swept a three-game series from the Twins, the Bosox stand at 7-10 and are in the basement of the A.L. East as they invade the Cell starting tonight for a four-game series. And I’m sure they haven’t forgotten last Saturday’s debacle when they blew a 9-0 lead to the Yankees and lost to their bitter rivals, 15-9.
If that weren’t enough, they’ve lost two-thirds of their regular outfield with serious injuries to Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury, have a decimated bullpen that was severely weakened by an injury to new closer Andrew Bailey on the eve of Opening Day and the starting staff has been far from stellar. Add a little bit of smugness and unfortunate rhetoric from their new skipper and you have a team, as presently constituted, that will have trouble contending with the likes of the Yankees, Rays and even Blue Jays. That said, it will be interesting to see how the sweep in Minnesota has lifted their spirits.
Our Sox come in at 10-8 and in a virtual tie with the Tribe for the division lead after a 4-2 road trip to Seattle and Oakland. It’ll Philip Humber on the mound tonight, fresh off of his perfect game. He’ll be facing promising youngster Felix Doubront.
Friday night it will be John Danks vs. converted reliever Daniel Bard, unbeaten Jake Peavy vs. Jon Lester on Saturday and Gavin Floyd vs. Josh Beckett on Sunday.
It wasn’t an oversight: No, I didn’t overlook yesterday’s 14-inning loss to Oakland. Just didn’t have the heart to revisit the bad memories.
How About These White Sox…and Tommy Lasorda’s Big Mistake
Jake Peavy did his best Philip Humber imitation, pitching a masterful three-hit, complete game shutout. The back-to-normal Adam Dunn and red-hot Paul Konerko hit back-to-back homers in the fourth inning, giving Peavy all the support he needed to offset the outstanding outing by the A’s Bartolo Colon. And, in the end, the Sox went on to win their fourth straight with a 4-0 victory last night in Oakland.
Furthermore, take a look at the standings this morning. The only American League team with a better record is Texas at 13-4. Right behind are the Sox and Tigers tied for the A.L. Central lead at 10-6 and the Yankees and Blue Jays knotted up for the A.L. East lead with the same record. Everyone else is behind these five leaders.
I know it’s early, but this is a lot of fun and I’m going to enjoy it.
Konerko on verge of 400th homer
Konerko’s homer last night was the 399th of his career, tying him for 48th place in major league history with Al Kaline and Andres Galarraga. One more and he joins the “400″ club.
Paulie’s standing as one of the game’s Top 50 home run hitters brings to mind Tommy Lasorda‘s comment when the Dodgers traded Konerko to Cincinnati for reliever Jeff Shaw (the Sox acquired PK from the Reds for Mike Cameron). The Hall of Fame manager said, and I paraphrase, that he was comfortable making the deal because he didn’t see Konerko as a 20-homer guy in the major leagues.
As wrong as Lasorda was in judging Konerko’s home run prowess, he was right about one thing. Paulie isn’t a 20-homer slugger. From 1999-2011 in a White Sox uniform, No. 14 averaged 30 homers. He’s had 40 or more twice, 30 or more five times and 20 or more on five occasions.
So much for Lasorda as a talent evaluator.
The Pen Again
Yesterday’s blog featured a photo that included Monday night heroes A.J. Pierzynski, Alex Rios, Gordon Beckham and Sergio Santos celebrating after the game. Also in the photo was Brent Morel, who went 0 for 4 and committed what could have been a fatal fielding error if the Sox hadn’t rallied to win.
What a difference a day makes. Last night, Morel bounced back and was at the center of the offense as the Sox won their fifth in a row, 4-3. He drove in the Sox’s second run in the second inning with a single and homered in the fourth to widen the Pale Hose lead to 4-0.
While Morel’s bat, along with Carlos Quentin‘s 24th homer and Pierzynski’s RBI double, paced the attack, it was the shutdown bullpen that was most impressive as it held the O’s to only the three runs they scored off starter Gavin Floyd in the fifth. Granted, the pen hasn’t been perfect as evidenced by Jesse Crain surrendering the three-run homer to J.J. Hardy on Monday. But the talent and versatility that Ozzie has at his disposal gives the Sox an advantage over most of their opponents.
Here was last night’s scenario:
* Despite showing signs of tiring, Floyd began the seventh. He gave up a double to Felix Pie, who moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. Floyd then retired the red-hot J.J. Hardy on a grounder to third. Two outs, runner on third, Sox killer Nick Markakis at the plate. Ozzie makes the call to the pen and lefty Will Ohman ends the threat by striking out Markakis.
* Jason Frasor came on to start the eighth. He walked Adam Jones and struck out Vlad Guerrero. With the lefty Chris Davis coming up, Ozzie called on Chris Sale, who retired Davis on a popup and then struck out Mark Reynolds.
* Instead of calling on Santos to begin the ninth, the skipper chose to have Sale face switch-hitter Matt Wieters. He struck him out. With the Orioles opting to call on Josh Bell to pinch-hit for lefty Felix Pie against Sale, Ozzie decided to stay with his lefthander. Bell grounded out to shortstop. Two outs, nobody on.
*Making his final move, Ozzie then called on Santos to face righthanded hitter Robert Andino and he proceeded to strike him out, the way he did with the three batters he faced the night before. For Santos, save number 24.
And at the risk of burying the lead, the Indians extra-inning win over the Tigers helped the Sox narrow the Detroit lead to four games. A win tonight and the Sox are back at the .500, something we doubted might happen again this season after last week’s four-game sweep at the hands of the Yankees.
A Season Gone Bad
As Paul Konerko said after last night’s sixth straight Sox loss–and a four-game sweep at the hands of the red-hot Yankees–”It is what it is.”
What it is, Sox fans, is the worst case scenario in a season that started out with great hope. But the potentially potent offense never manifested and the pitching that has been the reason we’ve hung in as contenders so long is now slumping. And after a 3-7 homestand, which actually began with a series win over the Tigers and a series opening victory over the Red Sox, we now face the Twins, a team we can’t beat to save our lives.
Six straight defeats, six games under .500 and six and a half games behind the division lead. 6-6-6, isn’t that a widely recognized symbol for the devil?
Hmm.
A Debacle
Yankees 18, White Sox 7.
Fifth loss in a row.
Five games under .500
6 1/2 games behind the Tigers.
One more with New York, then three over the weekend in Minnesota.
Need I say more?
Yankees 6, Sox 0, in Rain-Shortened Game
Fourth loss in a row.
Four games under .500.
5 1/2 games behind the Tigers.
I have nothing more to add.
Slip Slidin’ Away
Nothing in sports is as frustrating as the ups and downs of a 162-game baseball season. Last week, the White Sox won a tough three-game series with the first place Tigers and moved to within three games of the division leaders. Today, after two losses to the Red Sox and one to the Yankees last night, the Pale Hose find themselves on a three-game losing streak, three games under .500 and 4 1/2 games behind Detroit.
With three games left with the Yankees this week and three in Minnesota this weekend, the reality is that the season is hanging in the balance.
Last night was a game to forget. Paul Konerko was out of the lineup with an injured calf; 12 runners were left on base; hitting into double plays continued to be an albatross; Brent Lillibridge, in the lineup for his defense, didn’t hit the cutoff man on a crucial play; as a team they failed to execute offensively and only 24, 142 fans showed up to watch the Sox play the mighty Yankees. Oh, and Adam Dunn struck out three times in the cleanup spot.
I think we’re at a point where we have to face the facts. The postseason, and maybe even a .500 record, don’t seem to be in our future.
Familiarity Breeds Contempt as White Sox Lose Series to Bosox; No Last Minute Deals This Year
For anyone who wants to understand the White Sox struggles through the club’s first 106 games just has to look at the last three innings of today’s disappointing 5-3 loss to the Red Sox. It serves as a microcosm of the team’s failure to be better than their 52-54 record.
7th Inning: The Sox lost their 3-2 lead (wasting another Mark Buehrle effort) , largely due to a deflected infield hit and a Tyler Flowers passed ball that moved the tying and winning runs into second and third. The two runners scored on a Dustin Pedroia base hit.
8th Inning: With two outs and Alexei Ramirez on second with his 22nd double, Juan Pierre failed to drive in the tying run. It is important to note that Pierre was hitting in the third spot only because he replaced Paul Konerko, removed from the game after being hit by a pitch.
9th Inning: Now down 5-3, the Sox had three of their supposed big bats in position to give it a shot. But they went down with a whimper as Carlos Quentin, Adam Dunn and Alex Rios all went down swinging. The problem, as we all know, is that Dunn and Rios are far from being big bats, despite the preseason expectations and the back of their baseball cards. They haven’t done it in the first four months and there’s no reason to believe things are going to change.
If Dunn and Rios continue their woeful offense and continue to fail when it counts, there’s no reason to believe the Sox are any better than a .500 team let alone a division contender.
Bad Timing?: With two losses in a row, the Sox find themselves in a tough situation with the Yankees coming in for four games. To make matters worse, C.C. Sabathia is on the mound in Game 1 tomorrow night.
The Frank Thomas Statue Was Unveiled Before Today’s Game
A Loss, A Deadline and a Statue
It was inevitable.
The White Sox mastery over the “other” Sox (seven wins in a row) was bound to end some time. And it certainly did last night as the streak ended with a thud–a 10-2 battering at the hands of Boston.
With Edwin Jackson gone, Phil Humber is being counted on more than ever with the rotation going from six to five. For the first four innings he appeared to be up to the challenge, but he didn’t survive the fifth as a result of giving up a four-spot before being pulled from the game.
Jon Lester being on the mound didn’t help the South Siders’ cause. Our offense is problematic enough with facing the tough lefty, who gave up only two solo homers (Paul Konerko and Gordon Beckham), a total of four hits and struck out eight in eight innings of work.
The game was probably decided anyway, but Boston scored a run in the eighth and five in the ninth off of Brian Bruney, a rare meltdown by a bullpen that has been close to perfect. The good news is that Will Ohman, Jason Frasor, making his Sox debut, and Matt Thornton had effective outings out of the pen.
With the Yankees coming in for four starting tomorrow night, a series win today would be nice to see as we need to keep pace with the Tigers. Detroit remains three games ahead of us and a game and a half in front of the Indians. Both rivals have improved their pitching staffs as the trade deadline approaches. The Tigers acquired starter Doug Fister and reliever David Pauley from Seattle and the Tribe nabbed Ubaldo Jimenez from the Rockies.
Sox Notes of Note: Kenny Williams indicated yesterday that the Jackson/Frasor deal very likely will be it as far as the Sox are concerned with the deadline this afternoon…The greatest hitter in the history of the franchise, Frank Thomas will be honored today with the unveiling of the newest outfield statue.
As SoxWorld Turns…
Rejoice White Sox fans, we’re back at .500 and seemingly on a roll after a nice, efficient 3-1 victory last night against the Red Sox.
Suddenly, things seem a lot bright brighter than they did a few days ago. Whether it’s the series victory over the Tigers, the emotional impact of the Edwin Jackson trade, the continued outstanding pitching, the callup of Alejandro De Aza and benching of Alex Rios or all the above, much more optimism is evident throughout White Sox Nation.
Certainly one of the biggest recent boosts has been the resurgence of Gavin Floyd, who lately has been lights out. In seven innings of work against Boston last evening he gave up a lone run (a homer to Jarrod Saltalamacchia) on three hits with five strikeouts and in the process evened his record to 9-9. The offense, which is still not where it should be, provided just enough, highlighted by A.J. Pierzynski‘s two-run, seventh inning home run.
Three games back of Detroit and just a half-game behind second place Cleveland, it seems the Sox are going to make a serious run. But before I get too crazy, we still have two more games against the Red Sox, four vs. the Yankees and three in Minnesota. And who knows what trades are going to be made in the next two days that will impact the club.
I guess all that will take care itself. But, for now, like the Sox I’m back in the game.
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