Sox Machine: Chicago White Sox blog

LfT Day 4: Wrapping up

(I’ll prep the Day 4 photos tomorrow.  Meanwhile, here’s a 20-second movie I took of Mark Buehrle warming up.)

After the game, we found another decent strip on 4th Avenue in central Tucson to help upgrade the status of Tucson to “not bad.”  We still can’t understand why anybody would want to live here, but as long as there’s White Sox baseball and a couple of places to go at night, I don’t see why it’s not worth visiting every couple of years.

It’d help more if it rained every once in awhile.  Definitely made it easier to breathe, and I didn’t feel like I needed to wash my face every hour.  Unfortunately, the cold weather (low ‘50s) made me forget to put on sunblock, and I developed a nice case of sunburn that traces where my sunglasses were.

With seats two rows up down the left field line, we had a pretty nice view of the game, and sat in prime foul ball territory.  Jermaine Dye almost gave Matt another gift during the game when he hit a screaming liner towards our section.  Unfortunately, a guy two seats down brought a glove and snagged it.  

If you’re heading to Tucson this year or next year, here are a couple things I’ve forgot to point out over the past three days.

*Don’t get fooled by the PA announcer.  During the first game at Tucson Electric Park,  the man on the microphone would read a PSA for designated driving, saying something like, “White Sox fans are the best fans around, so when you’re leaving the park…”  And that made me feel pretty good.

But when I went to the D-Backs-Mariners game at TEP, the PA announcer said “Diamondbacks fans are the best fans around…”  I then felt used.  Now that I think about it, that opening clause really didn’t make any sense, because it didn’t relate in any way to designated driving.  Unless he wanted the worst fans to drive drunkenly into a telephone pole.  What an applause whore.

*We came up with a surprisingly fun game while driving around town.  It’s called “Restaurant or Furniture Store?”  It may not sound interesting, but let me tell you, it has legs.

Not being from the Southwest, we’re used to seeing Spanish-named places only as ones that offer Mexican food.  So when we were looking for places to eat on Thursday and Friday night, we discovered that a lot of places that seemed like they had dinner potential ended up being furniture stores.  So one of us would give each other the name of the establishment, and the other would have to guess whether it was a restaurant or a furniture store.  

It sounds easy, but it proved rather difficult.  Give it a shot.  (Answers at the bottom)

1)    Tres Amigos
2)    Diego’s
3)    Zoteca
4)    Casa

I’ll be heading back to Albany on a 7 a.m. flight tomorrow, so I don’t have time to get to the photo gallery tonight.  I’ll prep the photos during my layover in Atlanta and post them there if I can.  

I’m going to miss the baseball, but at least the World Baseball Classic is going on.  I highly recommend it – the USA-Japan finish was incredible (just like ALCS’ Game 2), and Puerto Rico looks good against the Dominicans.  Javier Vazquez shut down a lineup with Alfonso Soriano, Miguel Tejada, Albert Pujols and David Ortiz as the top four hitters, so hopefully he’ll be able to do the same against the Royals in August.

Anyway, it’s back to Albany and back to work tomorrow.  Only three weeks until the regular season starts, and hopefully the Sox will look better then than they do now.

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Answers to “Restaurant or Furniture Store?”

1)    Furniture store
2)    Restaurant
3)    Furniture store
4)    Financial services center – gotcha!

LfT Day 4: Game recap

Angels 6, White Sox 1

The first five innings were a treat to watch, because Mark Buehrle was on his game.  Nobody hit the ball particularly hard, he didn’t walk anybody, he picked a guy off, and he only used 49 pitches in five innings by my count, and he might’ve had more if the Angels’ Triple-A team didn't swing at first pitches so often.

Unfortunately for Buehrle and everybody in attendance, the sox didn’t score.  The rest of the team was negligible at best, scary at worst, starting with…

The running game – Brian Anderson led off with a first-pitch single in the first inning, then he was thrown out trying to steal.  I don’t know if they were trying a hit-and-run with Uribe because there were latecomers standing in front of me, but it was the second time Anderson was caught stealing in games I attended.  They also failed a hit-and-run with Joe Crede on base and Chris Widger at the plate later in the game, and Tadahito Iguchi was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.

The bullpen – Once again, Dustin Hermanson got rocked.  He pitched the sixth and to one batter in the seventh, and he might’ve tweaked his back then.  Ozzie and Herm Schneider came out after he threw his first pitch to Brian Specht, but he stayed in the game for four more pitches until Specht doubled off him.  Then he left the game.

His line:  1+ IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 KK.  After inducing a weak flyout to start the inning, everybody else he faced hit him hard.  It doesn’t look encouraging.

Tim Redding’s line wasn’t pretty either, giving up three earned runs on three hits and a walk.  And he just looked like the Tim Redding of the last couple years.  

On a positive note, the LOOGYs fared well – Armando Almanza came on after Hermanson and retired all three batters he faced including a strikeout, though he did allow an inherited runner to score.  Paulino Reynoso struck out the side in the ninth.

The offense –  Eight baserunners in nine innings.  That about sums it up, and as was said before, they often erased themselves on the basepaths when they did get on.  The sixth was the pinnacle of ugliness, when Nick Adenhart retired the Sox 1-2-3 on four pitches, including a first-pitch out from Jim Thome.  Jered Weaver started the game for Anaheim, and he looked less erratic, both with his control and his technique, than his brother Jeff.

On the other hand, Juan Uribe is encouraging me in the No. 2 spot.  He went 1-for-2 with a walk and a single, and two days ago, he worked two three-ball counts against the Giants.  He seems to be using a different approach than he showed for most of last year.

That’s about it.  Chris Stewart scored the only run when he singled, advanced to second on Darren Blakely’s single, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Jerry Owens’ groundout, but it wasn’t the sort of scoring you can build on in the next game. 

Lft Day 4: Morning update

The rain has lifted, and it's scattered showers and partly cloudy the rest of the day.  The breeze has also lessened, so between that and the damp ground, we shouldn't be tasting the air as much today. 

Mark Buehrle and Dustin Hermanson are expected to see extensive work, and the Sox may be taking their cuts against Jeff Weaver.  Anaheim's going split squad today, so it's hard to tell.

LfT Day 3: 142 out of 143 ain't bad

(Day 3 photos can be found here)

Starting the recap of the day with the end of it, we ran into a couple of Sox fans at a bar who said they made the trip to Phoenix today and wished they didn’t, so settling for Diamondbacks-Mariners wasn’t all that bad.  It was warmer in both Chicago and Albany than it was in Tucson today, but at least we got to see some baseball.

We spent the hours we would’ve spent driving watching Albany knock off Vermont for the America East championship, so I’m done complaining.

Aside from the wind, cold and rain (the first time in 143 days or so), the game was enjoyable to watch, aided by a 25 mph wind blowing out to center.  We got to see Kenji Johjima, the new Japanese Mariners catcher, rack up two hits including a homer.  Jeff Bajenaru struck out three of the five hitters he faced, yet still allowed a run.  Luis Vizcaino retired the Double-A Diamondbacks 1-2-3.  There were plenty of wind-blown pop-ups that Joe Crede would’ve lost track of, and it helped spark some wacky defensive play. 

The one thing about the Tucson climate is that it might be the only weather that gets stuck in your teeth.  You have to remember to walk into stiff winds with your mouth closed, lest you be spitting out sand for the next few hours.

Speaking of Tucson, we finally found an area that resembled a modern urban area instead of a desert outpost on the far, far east side of town.  You know, the places that make any city resemble a modern American one – including a Buffalo Wild Wings, which is all right by us.

It’s been raining since about 5:00, and the forecast predicts it’ll continue to do so tomorrow.  We have tickets for the Sox and Angels with plans to attend Rockies practice in the morning, so let’s hope it’ll let up enough to catch both of those. 

Next week looks like a beauty, though.  Figures.