Tonight's game highlighted the best and worst aspects of Ozzie Guillen's leadership methods.
On one hand, I already went over
his fixation with speed over talent yesterday, and now it's coupled with his reluctance to actually use it to his advantage tonight (
I liked The Cheat's analogy). Since the Sox aren't in contention, there's no use in beating the dead horse further.
On the other hand, it seems like finally -- finally -- the bullpen has found its groove, and Ozzie is a big reason why. As unimaginative as he's been with the batting order (specifically the top of it), he's been equally proactive in finding roles for relievers who probably don't belong in the major leagues.
Since
July 24, when the bullpen helped the Sox rally from a 7-1 deficit by throwing 4 2/3 scoreless innings, Sox relievers have held batters to
a .224/.259/.488 line, and I'm willing to cut them some slack on the slugging percentage because seven of the nine homers allowed came in the
first two games of the Yankees series. The Yankees are destroying everybody's pitching -- they're hitting .326/.398/.555 as a team since the All-Star break, over which they're averaging 7.5 runs a game. Those numbers will go up again, considering
the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 9-2 tonight.
Granted,
Bobby Jenks and his streak of 32 consecutive hitters retired makes Ozzie's job a lot easier, but none of the other relievers are exactly blowing anybody away. However, Ozzie's found a groove by giving the deserving Ehren Wassermann the ball in tight spots, not trusting Ryan Bukvich against lefties, avoiding burning his LOOGYs and giving Mike MacDougal a relatively easy reintroduction to major-league hitting.
It's a break Ozzie deserves, because for all the failures the bullpen experienced for the first three and a half months of the season, it wasn't a result of negligence. He tried his best to use short and long leashes, encouragement and verbal lashings, demotions and rewards, and it's nice to see his guys finally taking advantage of it.
If only he put the same amount of energy into reconfiguring the lineup, which has been neglected since the 2006 All-Star break. Hiring an offensive coordinator for Ozzie would be a great idea, but considering
Sid Luckman still holds the Bears' important passing records, good luck finding one in this town.
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Steve Stone shared the booth with Hawk Harrelson for the first time tonight.
I only heard about half of it -- Extra Innings carried Cleveland's feed, but midway through the game I realized MLB.tv had the Sox's call, so I paused the DVR to match the Internet delay, and away I went -- but that half sounded pretty good.
More so, it made me realize how much Darrin Jackson thwarts chances for actual baseball insight by leading the Hawk forcefully into rehashing old stories. Sure, Harrelson found a way to bring Catfish Hunter into the conversation, but it's different when an in-game action sparks the anecdote.
Jackson has the horrible habit of stopping the game to raise questions like, "Now, Hawk, when you were playing, which pitcher intimidated you the most?" Or the more general version: "When you look at today's players, what would you change?"
It's one thing to talk about the old Baltimore Orioles, like Harrelson and Stone did tonight, or to discuss their own playing days. But tonight's banter played out like a conversation between two old pros, even if we've heard some of the parts before.
All I know is that it's going to be a lot more irritating when DJ returns to the booth, and resumes the forced, awkward transitioning away from the game I'm trying to enjoy.
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Minor league round-up:- Richmond 9, Charlotte 4
- Nick Masset had a tremendous game as a starter -- six shutout innings, with two hits allowed and one walk. He struck out only one, but he did get 11 groundouts to 6 flyouts, and threw only 58 pitches. Hopefully that means a lot of weak contact.
- Turnabout is fair play, unfortunately, as the bullpen imploded. David Aardsma was rocked the hardest, giving up back-to-back homers in the 10th inning and taking the loss.
- Thomas Collaro was perfect at the plate, going 3-for-3 with two walks, a double and an RBI. On the flipside, Donny Lucy wears the golden sombrero after an 0-for-5, four-strikeout night.
- Former(?) 'roider Alex Sanchez went 2-for-5 in his Charlotte debut, and Earl Snyder and Casey Rogowski also had two hits apiece.
- Birmingham 9, Mobile 2
- Gio Gonzalez allowed only one run and struck out 11 over six innings. He allowed three hits and walked three.
- David Cook had a monster game, going 3-for-5 with two homers and five RBI. Victor Mercedes added a pair of doubles.
- Wilmington 6, Winston-Salem 2
- Derek Rodriguez was roughed up for five runs on 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings.
- Ricky Brooks pitched a perfect inning of relief, lowering his ERA to 1.64 as a reliever in High-A ball.
- The Warthogs managed only three hits; Daron Roberts went 1-for-3 with a double and drew a walk for the second straight game. He's now up to 7 over 280 at-bats.
- Kannapolis OFF