posted on Saturday, May 19, 2007 1:34 AM
by
Jim
A non-support support group
A couple years ago, Kenny Williams made the statement saying that all five of his starters could win 15 games.
Presumably, he has to still believe that four of them could do it, even though a couple names have changed. Williams wouldn't lay that great of expectations upon John Danks, but he certainly is paying Javier Vazquez to be better than Freddy Garcia or El Duque.
That said, it looks like no Sox pitcher is going to have an especially gaudy win total, but it won't be their fault if that's the case. Plainly put, the Sox offense isn't capable of getting its starting pitchers 15 wins.
Four Sox starters have ERAs under 4.00, and Danks (4.10) would join them if it weren't for a Juan Uribe misplay. Jon Garland and Jose Contreras are tied for the staff lead in wins... with three. And Contreras has a sub-.500 record.
Despite throwing a quality start, Mark Buehrle dropped to 2-2 and was denied his 100th victory again
after his loss today. The Sox are 3-5 in Garland's start even with Garland's ERA near 3.00 and a drastic reduction in hits allowed. We don't even need to talk about Danks, since his lack of support has been mentioned often.
Here's
how the Sox starters rank in run support out of 45 American League pitchers with 40 innings pitched:
25. Javier Vazquez, 4.67
32. Mark Buehrle, 4.25
40. Jon Garland, 3.81
41. Jose Contras, 3.64
43. John Danks, 3.24
That's right -- no Sox pitcher ranks in the top half of the league in run support. Even the Kansas City Royals have one up there (Jorge De La Rosa,
"Cy" to you).
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Joe Crede missed today's game after
getting hit in the face with a grounder during practice. I'd normally say that it's the Sox's loss, but with Crede owning a .531 OPS so far this season, he needs all the help he can get. If he turned around his 2005 after breaking his finger...
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Minor league round-up:- Columbus 4, Charlotte 2
- Jerry Owens went 2-for-4 and stole his 20th base in 25 attempts.
- Andy Gonzalez continues to struggle. Not only was he 0-for-4, but he was caught stealing and picked off.
- Josh Fields and Brian Anderson both went 1-for-3 with a walk. Fields doubled and struck out two times, Anderson did neither.
- Carlos Vazquez pitched 1 2/3 innings of perfect relief, and has yet to allow a run in 10 2/3 Triple-A innings.
- Birmingham 5, Montgomery 2
- Adam Russell rebounded from a tough start to throw seven innings of one-run ball. He allowed only three hits, walked four and struck out six.
- Dewon Day continued to maintain a high BABIP, striking out the side and allowing two hits and an unearned run in one inning; Oneli Perez earned the save.
- Jason Bourgeois continued his hot hitting with a 2-for-5 day; Donny Lucy went 1-for-3 with a solo homer and scored three runs.
- Winston-Salem 11, Lynchburg 6
- The Warthogs scored in each of the first seven innings.
- Aaron Cunningham went 1-for-3 with a double, three RBI, and stolen base No. 13; Micah Schnurstein hit a double and a triple; Paulo Orlando fell a homer short of the cycle and drove in four runs.
- Kyle McCulloch struck out seven over six innings, and none of the three runs he allowed were earned.
- Lexington 6, Kannapolis 1
- Brandon Allen and Hancer Vargas had two hits apiece; the rest of the lineup went 2-for-25.
- Ricky Brooks gave up four runs in five innings, but did strike out eight.