Friday, August 03, 2007 - Posts

Ministry of painful walks

Leave it to Darin Erstad to bring a whacked-out ballgame back to Earth.

After the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees became the first teams in major-league history to throw eight runs at each other in the same inning, Erstad gave Sox fans a more familiar sight when he left the game limping at the end of the sixth.  I figure this will serve as stock footage for future games, and also it's fun to see somebody making Herm Schneider's gait look normal.

Similarly sad is an article in the Tribune about Jerry Owens pushing Erstad out of a starting job.  There's no doubt that Owens should be given the playing time to see if he can become a cheaper version of Scott Podsednik, but I still don't see how a guy with a .250/.293/.287 line is knocking everybody's socks off.

His only hit today was a blown bunt, one of two he popped up on the day.  This one just happened to carry over Ron Villone's head and drop short of Robinson Cano.  I only remember one other time I saw a bunt like that, and it was off the bat of Mike Caruso.  Fluky or not, being compared to Caruso in any context is not good.

But hey, at least it's nice to see a non-white guy earning grinder points.

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By the way, Owens will never be as good as Podsednik has been over the last two days.  I wondered why Ozzie Guillen called for Pods to replace Jim Thome, who suffered back spasms, in the DH role.  Pods responded with a double ripped to the right-center gap, and also contributed a key two-out RBI single.

He also smoked an RBI triple to left-center Wednesday night, and also made a tremendous diving catch that wasn't required because of a bad jump or line.  It was a nice read all the way, beautifully timed with full extension helping him snag the ball with the tip of his mitt.

It's stretches like these that make Podsednik the most frustrating player on the Sox.  He has no other competition, now that Javier Vazquez is finally living up to his billing.

(And speaking of frustrating, Rob Mackowiak made his first start for the San Diego Padres tonight -- in the leadoff spot.  He went 2-for-5, scored two runs and stole a base.  Sigh.)

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And no, Jose Contreras doesn't count as "frustrating" because we know what we're going to get.  Ozzie Guillen does, too, which is why he's sparing Sox fans at least one start for the Count in hopes that he'll shake off whatever has been eating his stuff.

Contreras -- he of the 1-10 record, 8.89 ERA, .357/.420/.531 line allowed, 1.91 WHIP over his last 12 starts -- made a barely veiled trade demand.  The Southtown's Nate Whalen has some great reaction from Ozzie.

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Minor league round-up:
  • Toledo 5, Charlotte 4
    • Adam Ricks, who made the jump from Winston-Salem to Charlotte a couple of days ago after catching 10 innings because he was 75 miles away and the Knights had only eight healthy players, drove in three runs.  Kenny Perez hit a solo homer.
    • Carlos Vasquez allowed a run over the final two innings of a bullpen day, which is the third straight outing in which he's been scored upon.
    • Ryan Sweeney has missed action as of late with a sore wrist.
  • Potomac 7, Winston-Salem 5
    • Micah Schnurstein hit a three-run homer, his 20th of the year, and also drew three walks.
    • Every Warthog reached base at least once; Brandon Johnson was the only one without a hit.
    • Derek Rodriguez had a rough start, giving up six runs (five earned) over five innings.
  • Kannapolis 12, Delmarva 3 (Game 1, 7 innings)
    • Sergio Miranda went 0-for-0 with five walks and four runs scored.
    • Brandon Allen drove in four runs on a 2-for-4 night; John Shelby hit a triple and drove in two.
    • Steven Spurgeon earned the win and finished the game with three scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and striking out four.
  • Delmarva 4, Kannapolis 1 (Game 2, 7 innings)
    • John Rocco took the loss, but three of the four runs he allowed were unearned, as Kanny committed three errors.
    • Allen had two of the Intimidators' four hits.
posted Friday, August 03, 2007 2:13 AM by Jim with 3 Comments