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

Week in a Box: April 30 - May 6

The Sox finished the fifth week of the season tied with the New York Mets for the best record in baseball, and owning a 1 ½ game lead over the Detroit Tigers.  It could’ve been larger if the Sox bullpen got the job done against Kansas City Friday, but the Tigers bailed them out by blowing a save themselves against Minnesota Saturday.  

Anyway, on to the awards:  

Player of the Week:  Joe Crede.  He reached base in all seven games this week, including hits in the first six games.  But it’s the timing of the hits that count.  He hit a go-ahead grand slam against Seattle on Friday in the seventh inning, then hit a go-ahead solo shot for good measure in the eighth two days later.  He’s covering the plate better than anybody on the team right now.

Player of the Weak:  Juan Uribe.  Sadly, Juan wins this award for the second straight week because he simply can’t get it going with the bat.  He’s still playing exceptional defense, but everybody else is hitting so well that he just can’t keep up.  He went 3-for-24 this week, and although he did have the game-winning single against Seattle, it dropped because Jeremy Reed 1) was playing too deep, and 2) didn’t go all-out for it.  

Pitcher of the Week:  Javier Vazquez.  Javy wins this award this week not because he was the only pitcher to win two games this week, but because they were big performances.  Two quality outings helped ensure a split at Jacobs Field and prevented the Sox from embarrassing themselves against Kansas City for two consecutive nights.   

Pitcher of the Weak:  Mark Buehrle.  For two straight starts he has looked awful, without his changeup and catching too much of the plate with his fastball and curve.  He failed to finish six innings for the first time since he was ejected in Baltimore last year.

Fireman of the Week:  Neal Cotts.  No reliever had a perfect week, but Cotts’ slip-up against Cleveland was the least costly.  He also earned his first major-league save.

Gas Can of the Week:  Matt Thornton.  Bobby Jenks blew a save and Boone Logan lets inherited runners pass through easier than Canadian customs, but Thornton had three outings and let runners score in two of them.  Ozzie has to know that if Thorndog gets a 1-2-3 inning, he should quit while he’s still ahead.  His WHIP stands at 2.00.

Super sub:  Pablo Ozuna.  It’s the second straight week the Secret Weapon has won this award, and after the Pablo Ozuna Game, it can’t be given to anybody else.  Honorable mention goes to Ross Gload, who has started the last four games after starting zero in the first 27.  He’s been less scary in the field than I thought he’d be.  

Super scrub:  Alex Cintron.  He should’ve never started at DH in the first place, but Cintron stranded quite a few runners on the week.

Gold Glove:  Joe Crede.  The sliding catch isn’t all he did this week, making a couple nice diving stabs a key strong throw to retire Sox pest Willie Bloomquist in the extra-innings game against Seattle.  Brian Anderson had a great week as well, with a nice diving catch of his own and a beautiful throw home that might’ve nailed Jhonny Peralta against Cleveland.

Hands of Stone:  Scott Podsednik.  While his hitting has come around (batting .438 in May so far), his glove’s been atrocious.  An inexplicable error against the Indians and a subpar effort while trying to preserve Javy’s no-hit bid against Kansas City earn him this dishonor.

Happy trails:  Boone Logan.  Javy Lopez’s line in Charlotte: 12 games, 14 innings, 12 hits, 2 walks, 11 strikeouts, 0.64 ERA.