Those fans who still long for Aaron Rowand's grinder embrace should have experienced some warm and tingly feelings from Brian Anderson's tremendous catch in the fourth inning of the
White Sox's 4-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
Here's why:
To the left is
Rowand's catch Aug. 7, 2005; to the right is
Anderson's Friday.
Why do I single out that particular Rowand wall catch out of the many he made over his White Sox career? Because like Anderson's grab, not only was Rowand's catch against the Mariners, but it was also off the bat of Richie Sexson. Neato, huh?
One difference between the catches is the aftermath. Rowand fell to the warning track and laid there for a while; Anderson spun and fired to first. Does that make Anderson tougher? Maybe not, but at least he has an argument. It does call to mind
one of the most entertaining things Joe Cowley has ever written:
Rowand would run
through a wall because he was told to. Anderson would run through a
wall because it seemed fun and could land him a few 'honeys' along
the way.
Honestly, the more I read it, the less I understand it.
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Orlando Cabrera returned to the lineup and salvaged his evening with a single through the right side of the infield, giving him one hit in five at-bats. Although he kinda spoiled it by getting picked off before Carlos Quentin got a chance to do anything.
At one point, Cabrera's average dropped precariously close to Juan Uribe. After Uribe's third-inning single and Cabrera's deep flyout, Uribe raised his average to an even .200, while Cabrera's fell to .206.
Cabrera eventually regained a 15 point cushion at the end of the evening (.209 to .194), but Cabrera is an 0-for-4 day and a good Uribe day away from being on the losing end of this battle. At that point, I'm pretty sure Mayor Daley can officially declare the middle infield a disaster area.
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A day after his first stolen base since
September of 2002, Jim Thome transformed from Gentleman Masher to Gentleman Dasher once again by scoring on a Jermaine Dye's medium-range flyball. Thome actually scored far more easily than it seemed, considering Ichiro Suzuki had time to set up for the throw. He just misfired too far up the first base side.
Dye's sacrifice fly was the first one hit by the Sox since
April 23, when Paul Konerko took the first pitch he saw from Mariano Rivera and hit it deep enough to score Cabrera. It was enough to pull them out of last place in this particular field, as they now have six sac flies. The Los Angeles Angels are now alone in the cellar with five.
I'm not sure how much of a bellweather this particular stat is, but the Sox finished
dead-last in the category last year with 35 . On the other hand, the Angels actually led the league with 65, and the fact that they're second in the league in runs this year despite hitting the fewest sacrifice flies seems to indicate they're finding plenty of other way to score.
It could be a fluke, but considering the numerous amount of times the Sox have failed in this category, it's probably an important stat for offenses that aren't going to hit for average like the Angels' lineup. Unfortunately, Baseball-Reference's Play Index is down right now, but I'll look into this more tomorrow and update accordingly.
The Sox were No. 1 in sac flies in
2006 and No. 7 in
2005, for what it's worth.
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Minor league roundup:- Toledo 8, Charlotte 1
- Jack Egbert had a poor outing -- 5 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 2 HR.
- Hey, Ray King's on the Knights! He threw a scoreless inning in the ninth.
- Brad Eldred went 3-for-4, and Fernando Cortez had two hits.
- Jason Bourgeois went 1-for-4 and threw out Timo Perez at second; Jerry Owens went 0-for-4 and threw a runner out at third.
- Montgomery 4, Birmingham 3 (Game 1, 7 innings)
- Brian Omogrosso threw three scoreless innings, but walked three and struck out none.
- Dave Cook and Cole Armstrong each hit solo homers; Micah Schnurstein hit an RBI double.
- Birmingham 9, Montgomery 5 (Game 2, 7 innings)
- Ricardo Nanita homered twice and drove in five.
- Micah Schnurstein and David Cook each collected two hits.
- Carlos Torres struck out seven over five innings. He allowed four runs, three earned.
- Salem 10, Winston-Salem 4
- John Shelby went 4-for-5 with an RBI; he's now hitting .323.
- C.J. Retherford went 2-for-4 with a solo homer.
- Michael Dubee was roughed up for seven earned runs over five innings.
- Lakewood 5, Kannapolis 3 (12 innings)
- A guy named Gaines (who I assume is Ronnie) homered in his first game with Kanny.
- Jim Gallagher hit a solo shot, his first of the year; Jose Martinez had two hits.
- Johnnie Lowe struck out seven and allowed one unearned run over six innings.
- Daniel Albritton threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings in relief.