posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007 11:28 PM
by
Jim
Motown Blood
Thankfully, I didn't start writing about how awesome the Sox's bullpen has been before David Aardsma hung a slider to Marcus Thames in
today's 6-5 loss. That's not to say the bullpen isn't a pleasant discovery -- Sox relievers have gotten the job done up until this point, and Kenny Williams looks like he got the job done on that front. It'd just help if Ozzie Guillen didn't
allow opposing teams to see all of his relievers every single game.
Anyway, some thoughts on the near-sweep, which concluded on the seventh anniversary of
the great White Sox-Tigers brawl...
Darin Erstad has reached base eight times in his last three games against righties, which is outstanding -- until you realize how exactly he's done it:
- One solid single
- One duck-snort single
- Two seeing-eye singles
- A bunt single
- A free walk when a reliever licked his fingers
- An infield single
- An error
You know what that makes him? The Secret Weapon:
Blanco Edition. Maybe if Pablo Ozuna were named Paul Olson and hailed from the upper Midwest, he might get three-quarters of the acclaim Erstad receives instead of 1 percent of it.
At any rate, Brian Anderson didn't help his own cause when he failed to hold Brandon Inge to a single despite playing at no-doubles depth.
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Anybody else think that the Tigers were on to Razor Shines' signs over at third base? They went 2-for-2 in pitchouts in the first two games, and then Justin Verlander threw an eye-high fastball to Ozuna on a potential hit-and-run, which Ozuna somehow fouled off.
They pitched out unsuccessfully later in the game, so maybe the aforementioned incidents were merely the results of sheer good timing and hunch-playing by Jim Leyland. But it's something worth thinking about. Unless it isn't.
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Uptight Paulie Alert! Check out
this quote from Joe Cowley (I've edited for TV):
''We've got some FUNNY pros that want to play the game,'' Konerko
replied, when asked about the slow offensive start. ''It would be
different if they didn't give a SHIRT, but they give a SHIRT."
Konerko went 0-for-6 and left eight on base, and is hitting .175 with one homer in 63 at-bats. I'm not saying that we should start fearing
a 2003 redux, but I am saying a hug might be in order. Nobody has to question whether Paulie gives a SHIRT, but he is prone to give too many SHIRTS at times.
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Minor league round-up:- Charlotte 3, Columbus 2
- Heath Phillips struggled with control, walking five in six innings, but perhaps that could be called effectively wild. He gave up only two hits and two runs, while striking out five.
- Ehren Wassermann, Bret Prinz and Ryan Bukvich pitched three scoreless innings to close it out. Today was Prinz's first outing -- he gave up two hits, but struck out two.
- Josh Fields went 0-for-4, his average dropping to .179, but Ernie Young hit his first homer of the season, and career minor-league homer No. 315.
- Wiki Gonzalez went 2-for-3 with an RBI, and is 7-for-15 over his last five games. Can he please, pleeeease replace Gustavo Molina already?
- Mississippi 2, Birmingham 1
- Gio Gonzalez struck out 12 batters in six innings, walking only one. Unfortunately, he was tagged with the loss for giving up two solo homers. Gonzalez has struck out 30 hitters in 21 2/3 innings, and his ERA is 1.69.
- Thomas Collaro provided the only Barons run with a solo homer, his fourth of the year.
- Donny Lucy went 2-for-3, raising his average to .364 over 44 at-bats.
- Augusta 7, Kannapolis 0
- Coming off his best outing of the year, Jacob Rasner was hit hard -- 3.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K.
- The Intimidators turned three double plays, but also committed three errors leading to four unearned runs.
- The first six hitters went 0-for-20 with two walks; Kannapolis only had three hits on the day.
- Winston-Salem OFF