2006 State of the Sox

May 7: White Sox 3, Royals 2

A couple of big hits last week earned Joe Crede “Player of the Week” honors.  Today he got the current week off to a winning start with yet another big hit, singling in Jim Thome for the go-ahead run during the White Sox’s victory today.  With the Mets losing to Atlanta today, the Sox have the best record in the big leagues.  

Yesterday I wrote that the Sox don’t have to blow Kansas City out every game, but they need to outplay them in all facets of the game.  One could say they did that today, but it was a little too close for comfort.

In a battle of lefty Marks, Redman and Buehrle just about nullified each other on the mound, though Redman lasted one inning longer.  This is one of those games where Jermaine Dye’s absence (missing his fifth straight game with a sore calf) kills the Sox.  Instead of having Dye’s righty bat protecting Paul Konerko, Ozzie is forced to play Rob Mackowiak or Ross Gload instead.  Yet it’s important for Dye to make sure he’s 100 percent before re-entering the lineup for the same reason.  

Only listening to the radio broadcast today, I’m not sure how Buehrle looked – he left runners on second and third in the first when he snared a comebacker, allowed more hits than innings pitched, and gave up back-to-back homers to Tony Graffanino and Emil Brown in the fifth.  He also was especially inefficient, throwing 114 pitches in only six innings.  Yet he only allowed two earned runs and lowered his ERA, so hopefully it’ll be a confidence booster.

The bullpen received a similar boost by getting the job done in innings 7-8-9 after blowing a similar situation against the Royals Friday night.  After some questionable decision-making, Ozzie did a nice job working his bullpen today.  Cliff Politte had his best outing of the year – 1 1/3 innings of high-leverage work – Matt Thornton fulfilled his LOOGY expectations and Ozzie didn’t press his luck, and Brandon McCarthy struck out his only batter.  After missing his spots on Friday, Bobby Jenks sounded untouchable today.  

Sunday’s lineups aren’t usually built for offense, and today’s was no exception.  Fortunately, a couple of big hits in big situations provided enough scoring.  Crede’s game-winning single came on an extended inning – Jim Thome’s flyball should’ve been an easy out, but Kerry Robinson misjudged the wind and couldn’t catch up, and Thome ended up on second.  Elmer Dessens then walked Konerko to face Crede, who singled to left to score the game-winning run.  

Robinson had trouble out there, as earlier in the game he scaled the wall on a flyball to center – only to discover that the ball wouldn’t make it that far.  It bounced on the warning track and over the fence for what the umps originally called a home run and then reversed the call to a ground-rule double.

Pablo Ozuna’s bat once again came through in a big way for the Sox – after the back-to-back homers in the top of the fifth, the Secret Weapon hit a two-run triple in the bottom of the inning to immediately tie the game and bring his average back up to .500.  One batter later, he was the second out of a double play when Tadahito Iguchi popped up his suicide squeeze attempt.  Redman got the rare “1 unassisted” double play.  I’ve said before that it’s been a blessing that Iguchi’s botched some bunt attempts, but the squeeze was a good call here and The Emperor blew it.  For clarification’s sake, I’d enjoy it greatly if he could get bunts down on run-scoring plays.  

Record: 22-9 | Box score | Play-by-play