In honor of the recently-DFA'd Cliff Politte, we'll be going with the Cliff Notes version of SOTS recaps to expediate the catching-up process.
*Mark Buehrle had the shortest start of the year for any Sox pitcher -- Three innings, eight runs, only 51 pitches. From what I saw -- and the video seemed to back this up -- Buehrle was hitting his spots for the most part. The Yankees did a great of job of going down to get low pitches, and using the opposite field when he went outside. And he's just not throwing hard enough to get the ball in like he's used to. One more bad start, and I'd like to see him shut down for 15 days to get Brandon McCarthy a start.
*Speaking of McCarthy, here's another reason why his usage in Friday's game frustrated me. With Buehrle's abbreviated outing, here was a great chance to get the kind of long relief McCarthy is designed to handle in the bullpen -- and instead, David Riske got the call. Riske wasn't used in Friday's game, while McCarthy retired the only batter he faced -- and if this made the decision for Ozzie, then pencil me down for ARGH. This would've been the perfect chance to stretch out McCarthy for multiple innings, but instead we saw the mish-mash of relievers, with most of them getting pounded. Nothing against Riske, since he pitched well, but this was a job for Black Mac.
*Goodbye, Cliff Politte.
*I can't say I've ever seen a ball hit as hard as Jim Thome hit his gargantuan homer. It looked like it was still on the way up when it hit the upper deck, and I wouldn't have wanted to be on the receiving end of it. Fortunately for everybody involved, it appeared to hit an empty seat.
*I didn't know why Paul Konerko left the game early, but found out later that it was due to a "stomach virus." Of course, watching Alex Cintron forget that the runner coming at him to third base could be forced out, and dropping the ball in an effort to tag him, would make me sick, too.
Record: 57-33 |
Box score |
Play-by-play