The White Sox have scored 11 runs in their three games against the Tampa Bay Rays, and Dewayne Wise has either scored or driven in more than half of them.
Brian Anderson
has bestowed upon Wise the greatest title every player dreams of:
I
hope no one gets offended, because it's not meant to be offensive, but I really
do call him the black Ross Gload. He's the African-American Ross
Gload, there you go. Ross Gload is so versatile and he's such a great hitter.
But a guy like Dewayne Wise, you're almost in awe, wondering why this guy is
not playing everyday somewhere. This guy was about to go play Independent ball
and he's helping us win postseason games.
Of course, Gload doesn't come close to matching Wise's baserunning skills -- and
he provided one of his finest examples Sunday. In the third inning, he avoided getting doubled up by alertly diving back to first on a liner, stole second and scored on A.J. Pierzynski's single, which was the first two-out hit with runners in scoring position all series long by a guy not dubbed the African-American Ross Gload.
He's 10-for-10 in the base-stealing department between the regular season and the playoffs, and scored a +15 in Bill James' baserunning system in limited action. Perhaps we'll be calling the next Sox speedster the White, Hispanic, Asian or even Canadian Dewayne Wise.
Ken Rosenthal
has more on Wise ... but you might've already
read that here several weeks ago.
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While translating Ozzie Guillen's interviews from English to English makes a beat writer's job hard, at least he gives them
this same story at the end of every season:
"We need speed, but they have to have talent," Guillen said before the Sox beat Tampa Bay 5-3 Sunday to extend their American League Division Series. "I know I would like to see some more speed. But when you talk about speed, you can't talk about nine rabbits. You can't."
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if Wise reprised his role next season. Although I hestitate to again mention Wise's extremely spotty track record, he could also reprise the role last held by Timo Perez as Journeyman Outfielder Who Played Adequately in an Emergency Situation, But Won't Nearly Be Worth The Million Dollars or Thereabouts They Give Him The Following Year, or JOWPAESBWBNWTMDTTGHTFY.
Not that he's nearly as bad as Timo, mind you, but
Timo actually hit .292/.345/.406 for the first half of 2004. He then proceeded to play like the Timo we all knew and ... knew... for the rest of that season and all of 2005, but the half-season of not-badness was enough to secure a spot the following year.
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John Danks pitched 6 2/3 tough innings
to stave off elimination for the second time in front of a sea of
black-clad fans, and he saved his most important work for the top of
the fifth.
The Sox had just given him a 4-1 lead (thanks in
large part to a double by the African-American Ross Gload), and the
Rays countered with the top of their order. Danks struck out Akinori
Iwamura on three pitches, and fanned B.J. Upton after starting the
at-bat with two out of the strike zone.
Carlos Pena then hit a
harmless fly on the first pitch for a 1-2-3 inning, which was Danks'
finest frame. That kind of timing is why people are growing to love
Danks. Conversely, timing is also be one of the chief reasons behind
the growing disdain for Javier Vazquez.
In
three of his
last
four starts, Vazquez has coughed up a lead the half-inning after the
Sox gave him one. The Sox never led in
the other game, although to his
credit, Vazquez did throw a scoreless inning after the Sox tied it at 1.
Steve Rosenbloom called Danks "the anti-Vazquez,"
which is kind of the glib squirrel finding a nut. But I suspect if
Vazquez waited an inning or two to blow a lead, people would tolerate
him a little better.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping the Sox will consider
putting Danks on the Mark Buehrle Spring Training plan, because along
with winning his first career playoff game, he also cracked the
200-inning barrier for the first time. He's almost up 50 innings on
his previous high (156 in 2005), and he's had two of his more strenuous
outings his last two times out.
Of course, it all depends on how fast
he gets loose, but he's been a pretty good spring pitcher in a hitter's
environment, so it stands to reason that he might be able to ease into
2009.
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And now it's up to Gavin Floyd to
extend the Sox's winning streak in do-or-die games to five.
Floyd has never faced the Rays, but the Sox are well-acquainted with the pitcher Tampa will send to the mound in Andy Sonnanstine.
Sonnanstine handed the Sox
their first shutout loss in April, but they enjoyed an increasing amount of success off him their
second and
third times around. His last start was the Doug Eddings Game.
In mid-August, Sonnanstine stood at 13 wins, one shy of Tampa Bay's franchise record. He hasn't won a game since, though that's not indicative of his pitching overall. He was Danksed in a couple games, allowing
one unearned run in
two consecutive starts against Boston and receiving no decision in both.
Moreover,
he threw three consecutive starts without allowing a homer before throwing a couple gopher balls in his last start against Detroit.
Sure, the Sox didn't need the homer to beat the Rays Sunday, but that's because they got the running game going. They stand little to no chance of running on Sonnanstine, because
baserunners are only 2-for-13 against him lifetime. Contrast that against Floyd's laissez-faire attitude toward baserunners --
they were 37-for-42 off him this year -- and the ability to take extra bases could help decide this game. Roger Bossard
better turn first base into a swamp.
While Sonnanstine doesn't issue many walks, one of his flaws we've seen is that he often will grab too much of the strike zone. Sox hitters will have to take advantage of those mistakes for extra bases of their own -- preferably of the four-base variety.