Floyd good, just not lucky
Ted Lilly and Gavin Floyd had a combined record of 3-11 entering Sunday night’s game, which is pretty shocking considering their track records. So maybe their no-hit duel wasn’t so much due to the struggling offenses as much as it was some serious return to average.
One of them was going to continue their hard-luck ways, though, and Floyd ended up on the losing side despite, in my opinion, pitching a stronger game. Lilly induced a lot of lazy flyballs out of a naturally low-BABIP lineup, but I think Floyd could have beaten any lineup with his stuff.
The difference? He didn’t hang a single breaking ball. Not a curve, not a slider. His walks weren’t bad ones — one came after he pinched his nuts in the first inning, requiring a mound visit from Herm Schneider. Combine it with hit fastball he worked up and down nicely, and it was the best Floyd we’ve seen in 2010. The decisive two hits came on a good slider and a decent fastball. Credit Alfonso Soriano and Chad Tracy with nice at-bats.
At the very least, Floyd has stabilized himself. He’s thrown quality starts in four of his last five outings, and even with a total turd against Texas, he has an ERA of 3.60 and 30 strikeouts over 30 innings during this stretch.
And looking at the bigger picture, Floyd kept a good roll by the rotation going. After Mark Buehrle’s shelling at Cleveland on June 6, Floyd picked up the pieces and threw six strong innings. Every start has been a gem since:
Granted, the Tigers and Cubs aren’t powerhouse offenses, but considering the way Floyd, Peavy and Buehrle flopped against the Royals and Indians, I don’t think we can take quality of the opponent for granted.
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A.J. Pierzynski reached 10-and-5 territory today, so it looks like he’ll remain with the Sox at least for another month-plus, if not the entire year. If Pierzynski is traded, it’ll be due to an emergency with one of the contenders.
It wasn’t due to his performance, as Pierzynski is hitting .333/.366/.615 in June. I wonder if playing against the Cubs brings out his inner wrestler. He definitely seemed to have a spring in his step behind the plate, making a couple big throws to gun down runners at second base. Just like Floyd, he hasn’t been more fun to watch this season than he is right now.
More points to the wrestler theory: He took a Lilly fastball to the scapula, making it the ninth time he’s been plunked by Cubs pitching. Only the Cleveland Indians have hit Pierzynski more (13), but they’ve been a divisional rival for almost his entire career. He’s played in 131 games against the Indians, and just 38 against the Cubs.
(Also worth noting is that the Rangers have plunked Pierzynski nine times in 60 games, which makes me wonder if Pierzynski would accept a trade to Texas, the one contender that’s made its interest in catchers known. Vicente Padilla, who hit Pierzynski twice in the Sean Tracey game back in 2006, is no longer with the team.)
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Ozzie Guillen defended Gordon Beckham’s decision to bunt, as well he should. But in making a defense of one justifiable call, it made me question another:
“You bunt in the ninth, that’s unprofessional,” Guillen said. “But the eighth, Wrigley Field people; the only thing they can do is boo. They boo for every freakin’ thing here.”
So, when Guillen sent Juan Pierre up to the plate in the ninth inning, was he under orders to not bunt? Not that I’m complaining, given the results, but I am curious. The logic seems backwards.
It’s a one-run game in the ninth inning. Guillen pinch-hit with a professional bunter, the turf was wet, and the Sox would very much like their fastest guy and best basestealer to reach. Don’t desperate times call for desperate measures? The Sox aren’t in a position to dick away wins due to some vague concept of courtesy. I know it’s not football, but I’d like to think that baseball teams play to win the game, too.
Of course, it’s always possible that Pierre could’ve bunted if he wanted to, and I’m paying more attention to Guillen’s words than Guillen is. These unwritten rules have come up before, and they interest me, so … hey.
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Christian Marrero Reading Room:
*Bobby Jenks is bummed out by a lack of fan support, and while he’s been one of the few Sox who makes his year-round home in Chicago, he’s bought a house in Arizona, too.
*I very much enjoyed Carl’s post-Stanley Cup cartoon.
*The three worst umpires in baseball, according to a survey of 100 MLB players? C.B. Bucknor, Joe West and Angel Hernandez.
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Minor league roundup:
- Syracuse 3, Charlotte 2
- Outside of a couple homers, Dan Hudson was good: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 9 K.
- Dayan Viciedo went 2-for-4 with a double.
- Jordan Danks went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Brent Morel singled, walked and struck out over four PAs.
- Montgomery 3, Birmingham 2
- Christian Marrero and C.J. Retherford each went 0-for-4. Marrero struck out three times.
- Winston-Salem vs. Wilmington SUSPENDED
I was watching the game with some people so I may have misheard some of the announcing but can people confirm a couple of these gems.
“alex rios is a 4 tool player” -joe morgan
“rudy garamillo got rios back on track” -joe morgan
“gordon beckham is a famous soccer player” jon miller
Joe Morgan did at least make the comment about Jaramillo. I couldn’t figure out what he meant. Maybe the sight of the Stanley Cup affected his brain.
First one, yeah, I wondered at that one. What tool’s missing, Joe. Second one, heard it too. Got his scouting reports mixed up. And the one time he could’ve credited Walker with something. Didn’t catch the third one.
on the baseball side of things, this is why your a horse shit team, the cubs gift wrap a game and hand it too you and you simply refuse to accept it, alexei ramirez with an absolutely terrible at bat, then konerkos worst at bat of the season to follow
what was pk doing up there? pk takes two horrible swings the first a defensive swing at a fastball way outside and maybe low, now whats the scouting report on marmol? was pk in a 0-0 count looking for something other then a fastball? thats dumb for two reasons, 1 is marmols slider is rarely ever a strike you have to take it all the time, 2nd if he gets his good slider over what chance in hell do you have to hit it? there was no reason to look foolish on a fastball thats the only pitch you have to cover on marmol
just frustrating…
Agreed. I don’t know why Alexei wasn’t either pitch hit for or why he didn’t squeeze? He’s a great bunter.
I still think the White Sox can win this division but they have to get Beckham and Quentin out of the lineup. They are useless.
Who takes their places.
I agree, I was screaming at the TV for a squeeze.
Che is not a great bunter.
The argument against the squeeze is that it takes the bat out of the hands of Rios and Konerko if it goes wrong. Usually you don’t see teams try to score the tying run with it for that reason, especially with nobody out.
Does anyone else think CQ is just swinging too damn hard? This past week it seems that he is taking a homerun cut every time. Maybe I’m just frustrated with his poor results . . .
I like him swinging hard, what frustrates me, is his lack of ability to hit the opposite way consistently. Even Konerko (who is a better power hitter) uses right field more often then Quentin. Every pitcher knows to pound him away and he either just wiffs at the ball or pulls it weekly to left. He’s a damn major leaguer, can’t tell he doesn’t have the ability to hit to right field.
Can we end the Andruw Jones experiment and cut him already? Jermaine Dye hit better last year, had similar power numbers and at least we as fans, loved Dye.
Not sure I understand how the guy putting up an average line and playing decent defense is this team’s primary target to cut right now.
People really must want the Buck Coats Era to begin.
because his average line and decent defense gets him one or two games a week. besides, jones is never in the line up for his defense anwyays. if he was then quentin would never play because his defense is horrible, he really struggles to track a fly ball and has no range and for that matter, i trust dye out there more than i trust quentin.
keep jones then if you want, cut kotsay then for all i care, but bring dye in to be the dh, quit trying to rover people around. i don’t want to see vizquel at dh, i don’t want to see quentin at dh, i want to see someone that can hit and hit with authority at the dh position.
I’m entirely in favor of Quentin primarily DHing and I think Jones is a better defender.
I don’t object to Kotsay for Dye but it’s a lateral move. Dye makes basically no difference to this team at this point.
Quentin was a one and done. we cashed in on that one in 2008 and now he’s just done. he’s given nobody a reason to believe it can ever hit .270-.280 again and belt 30 something homers.
He’s definitely disappointing, but the Sox don’t really lose much by waiting around to see if he can salvage some of his value. It’s not like Quentin, Jones, and Kotsay are stealing playing time from the next generation of hotshot Sox prospects (sorry Buck).
if you take your suggestion and move jones to right permanently, that leaves the ability to bring in a dh (ty wigginton maybe, rumored to be on the market now…)
Wiggington is definitely available, but a contending team would probably have more use for him than the Sox.
Cannot really figure out what the point of bringing in a new DH would be at this point. We will be able to get one during the off season
cause the seasons not over yet. just imagine if we had a decent hitter come up in the 9th that sunday game vs the cubs, we’d be sitting on 6 straight wins, still playing the pirates and the nationals with a real shot at being .500 after Sunday. i’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet but they need desperate offensive help. the tigers suck, they may be more inconsistent than we are and they have more talent offensively. our big concern as always is the twins, but does anyone really see them running away with the division? we still have 13 games against them, win 8 or 9 of them and that makes up quite a bit of ground.
Teams this far behind rarely come back to win the division. The Sox should plan for the future. Trading for a DH is a waste of resources.
And yes, the Twins can absolutely run away with this division. They are a much better team than the White Sox, on paper and in practice. The chances of the Sox beating them eight or nine times are pretty slim.
Jermaine Dye hit better the first half last year.
Fixed.
And made more then a half mill a year