Black Sox Blog

I know the game’s not quite over, but it’s 9-1 in the fifth. And it’s not a sweep, because they play another game tomorrow. One of only four game being played on Monday.

Orlando Hernandez got things started on Friday. He pitched six innings and held Baltimore to two runs. The pen did their job as well. Three different reliever combined to shut out the Birds in the final three innings of the game. Carl Everett and Paul Konerko both hit homers and had three RBIs.

Yesterday, things were a little closer. The White Sox were down 6-4 through seven innings when the Sox broke the game open with four runs in the eighth. Jermaine Dye, A.J. Pierzynski and Joe Crede all homered as part of the nine run onslaught.

Tonight, the White Sox put up eight runs in the first two innings and Freddy Garcia is coasting. It’s now the sixth inning and it looks like the Sox might put some more runs on the board. They sent Orioles’ starter Rodrigo Lopez packing in the second inning with eight runs to his credit.

At this point, it’s just a waiting game. Frank Thomas looks like he’s out for the year so he won’t be a factor during the playoffs (yes, it’s foregone conclusion). We have to make sure we avoid any major injuries.

The Sox traded for Geoff Blum to help out in the infield. He’ll provide them some depth in the infield. In exchange they gave up Ryan Meaux, a left handed minor leaguer. Losing Meaux isn’t that big of a deal. He’s been stuck at AA for three years now and he’s going to be 27 in the off season. He is left handed, but he’s not a real hard thrower.

Things started well in this series. On Monday, the White Sox put 14 runs on the board and they beat the Kansas City Royals for the tenth straight time this year. Kansas City got quite a few hits (16) but they only put six runs on the board, which wasn’t nearly enough. The White Sox, in the meantime, put up 22 hits in the rout.

Six different White Sox had three hits, and a grand total of eight had mulithit games. Jermaine Dye led the way with four RBIs while A.J. Pierzynski homered and scored three runs.

Then something odd happened yesterday. The Royals finally beat the White Sox. With the game tied 1-1, the Royals touched Mark Buehrle for six runs in the sixth and Jose Lima held the Sox to a single run to win only his fourth game of the season.

The Royals clinched the series this afternoon in what was probably the toughest game to swallow for Sox fans. They jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the sixth, only to see it evaporate right before their eyes. Mike Sweeney hit a two run shot in the bottom of the fifth, then struck again with a three run shot in the bottom of the eighth. The game went into extra frames and the Royals finally put the game away in the bottom of the thirteenth.

The White Sox offense was pretty bad. They managed only eight hits, but that was through thirteen. Jon Garland threw a very good game and an error resulted in two unearned runs against him.

This is old news, but Frank Thomas is back on the DL. The move was retroactive to last Thursday, so he has about week left before he can come back. This time it’s a swollen left foot. Hopefully while he’s off, he’ll find his bat. While his OPS is solid (.905), his batting average is only .219.

Brandon McCarthy threw his first decent game in a long time. He’s even struggled at AAA since he was called up and made his major league debut, but this afternoon, he threw eight shutout innings and struck out eight. The win improved his record to only 4-7, but he has 102 strikeouts in 86 1/3 innings. His ERA was above five, but this last start pushed it to 4.69.

Anytime the World Champs roll into town, it’s a big series. When it looks like they could be a potential playoff opponent in October, it’s an even bigger deal. The White Sox didn’t far too bad as they walked away with a 2-2 split.

I think Luis Vizcaino has some sort of dirt on Ozzie Guillen. Not that he’d care too much, and I know there’s always a need for a long relief/mop up guy, but it seems like he’s gotten way too many highly leveraged innings this season. Thursday’s game is a great example. The White Sox had just gotten done tying the game in the bottom of the eighth, and in comes Vizcaino to lose it (his fourth loss of the season) in the ninth on a Manny Ramirez homer. With three errors and a so-so outing by Mark Buehrle, we shouldn’t have won the game anyway.

The home team bounced back on Friday with their best offensive showing of the series. A pair of three run homers by A.J. Pierzynski and Juan Uribe in the sixth opened the game up. Jon Garland was good but not great, but he walked away with his league leading 15th win of the season.

Saturday’s game was the most disappointing of the series. Orlando Hernandez threw a very solid game and then pen did their job as well. The problem was, Wade Miller completely shut us down. The Sox made a go at a comeback in the ninth off of Curt Schilling, but running catch at the wall by Manny Ramirez completed the shutout.

The Sox evened the series up yesterday behind the bat of Tadahito Iguchi. He went three for four, which included a two run homer and an RBI single. Scott Podsednik had three hits and two runs, and Paul Konerko hit a two run shot to set the stage in the first inning.

Guillen used five different relievers in the game. Jose Contreras improved to 6-6 as he struck out six through 5 2/3 innings.

The White Sox stand 12 games ahead of the Twins in the loss column, and Minnesota did not look good this weekend against the Tigers. The White Sox are on pace to win 107 games, and even if they go the rest of the way at a .500 clip, they’d win 96 games. I think 100 has to be the goal of the team, which is within reach. The last time the White Sox won 100 games (and it was exactly 100) was 1917, and we all know what happened that year.

You can’t win them all. And to paint this is in a favorable light, we were somewhat lucky to walk away with one win. On Monday, the Sox were down 4-1, but they opened the game up with three homers in the seventh inning. Joe Crede had the big blast as his three run homer put the Sox in the lead for good. Paul Konerko and Juan Uribe also homered in the seventh while Frank Thomas got in on the fun in the eighth with a solo homer of his own.

Tuesday and today’s games didn’t go as well. Despite some impressive numbers by Garcia in day games (4-1, 2,71 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP in nine starts), Garcia got hit hard this afternoon as he dropped to 9-4. The Sox really made an attempt to comeback with three runs in the ninth, but they just came up short despite having the winning run at the plate.

Yesterday was all Jeremy Bonderman. The Sox only had three hits against him and the lone run they scored was on a Juan Uribe ground out.

The Twins won so the lead is now a very comfortable eleven games. The Red Sox are on deck though. Anytime you go up against the World Champs, you have a tough series in front of you.

If there’s any question that this White Sox team is a “dream team,” then this last series with Indians should be what sets even the most paranoid Sox fan at ease. You couldn’t have written it any better if it were script. After the second halves that the Sox have had the last couple of years, a four game sweep against one of the hottest teams is pretty welcome.

Now we just have to take care of business against the Tigers. It’s tied 1-1 with Orlando Hernandez making his first start since coming off the DL. We’ve owned Detroit so far this year, and it looks like my bet with Brian over at Tigerblog is pretty secure.

No complaints about how the White Sox have played so far in the second half. Three games, three wins. And all against a team most people would make a quick run at things, the Cleveland Indians. They won their 60th game today.

On Thursday, Frank Thomas started and ended things with an RBI double in the first inning. Nobody for either team would cross the plate the rest of the game because we had a nice pitching duel. Jose Contreras and three relievers held the Indians to four hits. On the other side, Kevin Millwood threw a very nice game, but that run in the first cost them the win.

On Friday, the pitching was just as good. Freddy Garcia showed why he should have been in the All Star game as well when he pitched seven very solid innings. He gave up only a single run on six hits. On the hitting side, Pablo Ozuna had a solid game going four for five, while Chris Widger and Aaron Rowand both drove in a pair of runs.

This afternoon, Mark Buehrle showed why he deserved to start the All Star game as he won his eleventh game. In all, Buehrle and four relievers held the Indians to six hits, and while they made good use of those hits by scoring five runs, the White Sox racked up five doubles and scored seven runs. Aaron Rowand had three hits and three runs and A.J. Pierzynskid drove in two runs.

The White Sox go for the sweep tomorrow. To say this second half start is huge would be an understatement seeing as how they had such problems with the A’s right before the All Star Game. The Sox now have an insurmountable 11 1/2 game lead over the Twins.

If you’re a White Sox fan, the All Star Break is something you’re not too anxious to get too. For the last three years, the White Sox have led the division at the break, and the last two years they’ve lost that lead and didn’t make the playoffs. While they’d have to go into a major tail spin to blow this one, you just never know.

And they’re going up against one of the hottest teams in baseball this weekend. They’re up 1-0 in the fifth on the Indians (Frank Thomas RBI double), so hopefully they’ll start the second half like the best team in baseball should.

Well, there’s a first time for everything. Oakland seems to be one of the major thorns in our side as they swept the Sox this weekend. We’re now 2-7 against them on the season, which is by far the worst record of any team the Sox have faced. It’s the first time we’ve been swept in a three game series this season.

I don’t know what was tougher to take because we had a little of everything. In the first game, Jon Garland was solid, but the bats weren’t there. In the second game, Mark Buehrle was roughed up in what was one of his worst starts of the season. And then today, the Sox came from behind with two runs in the ninth to tie the game, only to see the A’s eventually win it in the eleventh. And to make matters worse, they scored almost three times as many runs in this one game as they did in the first two.

Frank Thomas had two hits this afternoon and neither was a homerun. So his season hit total is up to 20, while his homer total is stuck at 11. It’s not out of the realm of possibility for the Big Hurt to walk away with 30 homers this season. Paul Konerko had a nice game, going five for six.

Fortunately, the rest of the division has been equally apathetic. The Twins have only picked up a single game in the last ten, and we’ve actually picked up a game on the Indians.

I don’t think it’s official, but it looks like Mark Buehrle will be the AL starter in the All Star game. Hopefully he doesn’t throw too many innings, because the Sox have a huge four game season in Cleveland after the break.

While the first and second games were somewhat close (10-8 and 6-4), the White Sox handled the Devil Rays pretty easily. In total, they outscored them 23-14.

Jermaine Dye was the hero of the first game. His grand slam in the first inning set the tone, and while the Devil Rays made it close, the Sox never gave up the lead. In total, he had six RBIs and the homerun was his eighteenth of the season. Brandon McCarthy only pitched three innings of record in which he gave up eight hits and five runs. For his troubles, he was sent back to AAA. Hopefully McCarthy can pitch through whatever troubles he’s been having of late. He hasn’t really pitched well, be it AAA or the big league team, since his Sox debut against the Cubs back in May.

In the second game, the Sox never had a lead until Frank Thomas hit a huge three run homerun in the bottom of the eighth to give the Sox the win. He then homered again in last night’s game to bring his total up to eleven on the season. What’s most impressive about this is he has only eighteen hits and while he’s hitting a modest .250, his OPS is 1.100.

Jose Contreras threw well in the final game of the set. While he gave up two homers, they were both solo shots and were the only runs of the game. Through six innings he only gave up six hits and two walks, while he struck out three.

The Twins lost two of three against the Angels and the Indians split their four game series with the Tigers. The Twins stretched their lead to 10 1/2 games over the Twins and 11 1/2 over the Indians. They get a day off before the A’s come in to town. Hopefully the Sox can take care of business at home, since they’ve had trouble with the A’s when they head out west.

Well, you know these things happen when the Sox head out west. While I was back home for the weekend, the Sox dropped two of the three against the now streaking Athletics. They did manage to win Saturday to avoid the sweep. The good news is, they’re beating the Devil Rays tonight. I really wish the Sox game was on WGN (I’m still in MI) because the Braves/Cubs game is on three different stations.

The Twins have won three straight, and they’ve cut the Sox lead to 8 1/2 games. A win tonight would make that nine. Regardless, it looks like for the third season in a row, the White Sox will be in first in the AL Central at the All Star Break. I’m not going to mention what happened previously in the event I curse the team.

Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland were picked to go to the All Star. Congrats to them. Scott Podsednik is on the ballot for the final roster spot, but he’s going against Derek Jeter, so we’ll see what happens.

I hope everyone has a nice holiday weekend and that the Sox have a successful West Coast trip this weekend.