With a 4-for-5, two-triple, three-run night, Carlos Gomez improved his season line against the Chicago White Sox to .384/.408/.616, leading Hawk Harrelson to deem him a future superstar in the closing of his broadcast.
Watching
the soul-shattering 7-6 loss Thursday, you can see how he's done it: By taking advantage of awful, awful pitches.
And Bobby Jenks might have thrown the pitch that ended the season.
Allow me to introduce the following into evidence:
To the left is Mark Buehrle's strikeout of Gomez in the third inning of Wednesday's game. To the right is Jenks' pitch sequence against Gomez that led to Gomez's RBI single to narrow the lead to 6-5, and led to his game-tying run on Denard Span's follow-up triple.
Like Jenks, Buehrle had a runner in scoring position when Gomez was at the plate. Here's how he did it:
- First-pitch slider that Gomez fouled away harmlessly.
- Cutter very much in on the hands, jam-shot foul.
- Curve that crowded Gomez in, jam-shot foul, setting up...
- ...the fastball off the plate, which Gomez didn't offer at.
- But he did swing at the fastball up for strike three.
It was easy. Buehrle introduced different speeds to keep Gomez off-balance. The off-balance Gomez expanded the zone. Buehrle expanded it further, and down he went. He did not put up much of a fight.
Jenks, meanwhile, did the exact opposite of Buehrle. It was questionable enough that he threw three straight fastballs, but that can be explained away. While a decent curveball probably puts him away, a fastball above the letters probably gets the job done, with a foul-tip to the screen the most dangerous possibility. Then the curve is still available thereafter.
But nope. With A.J. Pierzynski popping out of his crouch to set a high target, Jenks actually made him move his mitt down. The ball was belt-high and over the heart of the plate, and Gomez knocked it into right field. The game slid away slowly after that.
Here's another way to illustrate how horrid the location was: Buehrle got Gomez swinging with a fastball that clocked in at a whopping 86 m.p.h. Jenks threw his at 96. There is virtually no excuse for allowing Gomez to touch it.
Not that Jenks wasn't the only culprit. Look at the pitch selection and locations to Gomez by Gavin Floyd the
first,
second and
third times they squared off, resulting in a double and two triples. Those aren't much better.
That has pretty much been the story all season, which is why Gomez has two very different stories when playing against the Sox and the rest of the league:
- vs. Sox: .384/.404/.616
- vs. rest: .244/.288/.329
And if you want Gomez's numbers when he's behind in the count:
- vs. Sox: .313/.313/.563
- Overall: .197/.201/.283
Those witnessing Gomez's performances against the Sox may look at the Minnesota center fielder and see a future All-Star, when the reality is that these games might be the only things keeping him in the league.
If you can stomach them,
the Cheat has some more ugly stats for you.
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Ken Griffey Jr. makes me feel like this site is on the verge of turning into
The Daily Show. No matter how often you check in, you're going to see Jon Stewart playing the role of world-weary observer hamming it up with reactions to absurd right-wing antics in current events. The subject material differs slightly from day to day, but the theme is the same.
And probably if you come here every once in a while, you'll see me scratching my head and trying to figure out what the hell the Sox are trying to accomplish with General Soreness, and you'll check to see if it's a re-post.
At least we only have a few more days of this. I understand he's a future Hall of Famer, but he's only hit three of his 611 homers with the Sox. Meanwhile, over the series in the Metrdome, he gave up four runs with his play in center, including one Thursday when he thought he was Tris Speaker and decided to play Joe Mauer shallow, only to watch a double go over his head.
Later in the game, Ron Gardenhire brought in two lefties to face the General. Griffey entered the game hitting .200 against southpaws, and they made him look silly. Against Dennys Reyes, he swung at two sweeping breaking balls out of the zone while watching the fastball for a strike. Craig Breslow, meanwhile, tried to do him a favor by walking him, but Griffey swung at ball four.
(That was the second time Griffey made a mistake swinging on a three-ball count, mind you. He got the green light on a 3-0 pitch and popped out harmlessly to left.)
Ozzie Guillen replaced Griffey with Brian Anderson in the bottom of the inning, which was not just a half-inning too late -- it was 3 1/2 innings too late.
Since the All-Star break,
Anderson is 8-for-24 with four extra-base hits against lefties, and is also a fine 4-for-12 as a pinch-hitter on the season. It would've been an inspired choice to replace Griffey in the fifth inning, when Gardenhire called for Reyes with runners on second and third and two outs. Righties hit Reyes much harder -- nearly 300 points of OPS harder.
If Griffey weren't Ken Griffey, but somebody whose name indicates his true talent level against lefties (like Joe Borchard), Guillen might've been more inclined to make a move. But he stuck with Griffey, who flailed away for an easy strikeout, and the Sox never threatened again.
Maybe I'm exaggerating slightly, because Anderson isn't exactly the bee's knees. But they also had Nick Swisher on the bench, and he would've been a better option as well. He should've drawn a key walk later in the game, but Alfonso Marquez was apparently on the Twins' payroll.
I really can't wait until this era is over.
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A couple questions I had while reading the Sun-Times:
No. 1: Juan Uribe
now has an issue with his boat, and I'm not sure how I should react. My first reaction is to laugh, mainly because I hope this is a continuing series of "Juan Uribe's Misadventures With Various Forms of Transportation."
He was accused of shooting somebody for standing too close to his Jeep. Now he's accused of keeping a boat on a car wash property for too long. By part five, the FAA could claim Uribe is flying his garishly-colored dirigible over restricted airspace. The possibilities are damn near endless.
My second reaction ... well, I don't really have a second reaction.
No. 2: I'm not much of a card guy, so help me out. In
Joe Cowley's latest airing of grievances against Orlando Cabrera, he writes the following:
MINNEAPOLIS -- Give Orlando Cabrera credit: Between hands of Texas Hold
'Em, playing dominoes and mastering the art of the five-minute change,
shower and dash after games, the White Sox shortstop has found time to
set the stage for his exit from the South Side.
That makes it sound like playing poker is bad. But then
I remembered this:
ARLINGTON, Texas—In hindsight, it wasn’t real difficult to see that pitcher Gavin Floyd was headed for a long night on Friday.
After
all, just minutes after he sat down to start working on a crossword
puzzle before his start, he yelled, ’’Hey, ‘Coop,’ what did you have
for 1 across?’‘
Lefty John Danks clearly has a different makeup.
Hours
before his start Saturday, Danks was juggling the 40 tickets he had to
come up with for friends and family, while making sure a Texas Hold ‘em
showdown with Jermaine Dye and Juan Uribe didn’t escalate from just
friendly shouting.
Never easy to do when Uribe is involved.
Danks was calm, cool and in control. Not one sign of confusion.
I understand the part about enjoying crossword puzzles as an indication of weakness, and as a crossword fan myself, I suppose I can accept my shortcomings. But I need some help on assessing the ramifications of playing poker, because even after a few months of figuring out who plays it in the clubhouse, I still haven't a clue as to why I should care.