Black Sox Blog

I don’t completely understand it, but despite the fact that the Indians could tie us if we get swept this weekend, the newswires are saying we get in as the division champion. It’s our first playoff appearance since 2000, but the kicker is, we haven’t won a playoff series since the last time we won the World Series. For you history buffs out, that was 88 years ago. It’ll be interesting to see if this year’s version of the White Sox can end decades of failure.

Not that the Tigers didn’t give us a little bit of trouble. We lost Monday’s game on a walk off homer, and that was after giving up a 3-0 lead. Tuesday we were equally pathetic at the plate and got edged once again.

Things turned around for us yesterday. Jose Contreras was solid, going eight innings and striking out nine. The White Sox offense picked at the Tigers, scoring runs in five different innings. Aaron Rowand opened up the game with a three run shot in the top of the ninth.

This afternoon was a little tighter, but the White Sox got to Jason Grilli early. Paul Konerko homered for the 40th time and Carl Everett was three for four with two RBIs. Freddy Garcia won his 14th game by going seven innings. He gave up only two runs on eight hits.

The weekend series means nothing, which is fine with me. Both the Yankees/Red Sox and Indians/White Sox games are listed as Fox games, so hopefully the Sox will be on out here. Although the playoffs will be starting soon, so I’ll be able to get to see all the White Sox I want.

The White Sox magic number is now two, and a win this afternoon against the Tigers means we’re guaranteed a tie for both the AL Central and the Wild Card. It’d be nice if the White Sox took care of business and either the Indians or Red Sox lost tonight. Thankfully it looks like the Indians finally ran out of gas.

This would qualify as a good weekend. Three straight wins and all with the pitching staff giving up a single run. This is what got us off to the great start that we’ve been riding the last couple of months, so I’m all for going back to it.

The Indians, on the other hand, finally lost a game as the Royals came back to beat them this afternoon. Our magic number is now five. If things work out right, we sweep the Tigers, the Indians drop one game in their series against the Devil Rays, and there’s no drama this weekend when the Sox square off against the Tribe. We’ve owned Detroit this season, so hopefully that dominance will continue.

Jose Contrares really came through with a nice performance on Friday. It was his first career (at least MLB) complete game and he struck out nine while earning his 14th win. Yesterday, Freddy Garcia was equally effective, and this afternoon, it was Mark Buehrle winning his 16th game of the season in the final regular season game at U.S. Cellular Field.

I’m feeling pretty good. Like the playoffs are a foregone conclusion, not just a possibility. Time to take down those Tigers.

The White Sox couldn’t build on their big win Tuesday and our offense showed our true colors. Four hits and no runs. And what was once a 15 game lead is now 2 1/2 games.

On deck is a four game series with the Twins. The Indians, on the other hand, get the streaking Kansas City Royals. The way the Twins and the Tigers have been playing, the AL Central has to be back to being the worst in the league, despiting having two teams set to get into the playoffs.

Time to win guys. The Indians have the Devil Rays after the Royals, while we have the Tigers. Then we square off in the final weekend of the season. Hopefully things are locked up by the time we go head to head.

What a game. With me working out of town, I didn’t get to watch it, but I wore out my refresh button as I kept going back to the box score on Yahoo. After Monday’s loss, this game was nothing short of huge.

The Indians jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second, but the White Sox answered with two in the third on a Joe Crede two run homer. Travis Hafner gave the Indians the lead again in the fourth, but the White Sox answered and tied it up with a Juan Uribe RBI single in the bottom half of the inning.

Then things got really interesting. The Indians scored two in the seventh to make it 5-3 and things were looking grim. The White Sox answered in the bottom half of the inning as they rattled off three runs. A.J. Pierzynski drove in a run with a double. Aaron Rowand hit an innocent enough sacrafice fly to follow that to tie the game, but Jose Hernendez cut off the throw to the plate and threw the ball away trying to get the runner at third. Another run scored, and the White Sox had a one run lead.

Then in the top of the ninth, things looked grim again. Dustin Hermanson gave up a walk and double before Ron Belliard drove in the tying run on a ground out. With two outs and a runner at third, Hermanson struck out Ben Broussard to end the threat, and the game went into extra innings.

Joe Crede might have had another disappointing season for the Sox (he’s my favorite player), but what a huge game. In the bottom of the tenth, Crede homered for the second time and the White Sox walked away with the win. Our magic number is now nine and a win today would go a long way towards locking up the division.

Not a bad weekend. We took two of three against a still solid Twins team. Unfortunately, the Indians continue to tear things up. This week will be round one as the Tribe comes to Chicago for a three game series. It’s sad at this point, but I’d even take a series loss as long as it’s not a sweep. That would leave us with a 2 1/2 game lead (three in the loss column) with a week and a half to go. A sweep would be catastrophe if we’re on the receiving end, while a sweep for the good guys would pretty much seal up the division.

Friday was more of the same. No offense (six hits in 10 innings and only two runs), but fortunately it was enough because the Twins might just have worse hitting then we do. Jon Garland was very sharp (eight innings, six hits, one run), but it was a Joe Crede single in the top of the tenth that put the game away. Crede has been on a tear since coming off of the DL and homered earlier in the game. In eight games, he had two hits in five of them and his average has improved from .232 to .247.

Yesterday was the loss, and again, more of the same. Johan Santana tore through us and held the Sox to four hits. Orlando Hernandez was keeping pace with him but fell apart in the fourth and gave up four runs. The White Sox struck out 16 times, which has to be a season high (I’m too lazy to look it up).

Today, we actually got eight hits, and once again, it was enough. Aaron Rowand had an RBI single and Jermaine Dye got a run across when Nick Punto misplayed his ground ball. Jose Contreras was awesome, going eight innings and holding the Twins to five hits.

It’s do or die time, but this makes for some nice drama. It doesn’t look like any of the games are on TV, but it’d be nice if ESPN picked up the Wed. game. Go Sox.

If your a glass half full kind of person, the White Sox at least made a moderate move in the right direction this week. With one loss by Cleveland and one win for the Sox this week, the White Sox magic number is now 13. If you’re a half glass empty kind of person, then you look at the fact that we lost two out of three to the worst team in baseball.

Things started out well enough on Monday. Jose Contreras was good enough, and the pen also did their job. Aaron Rowand had three doubles and he went four for four. All six runs were scored by different people, as were all five RBIs driven in by five different Sox. Chicago even held off a late inning run by Kansas City to pick up the win.

Yesterday, things went a little differently. The White Sox had 9-4 lead before Freddy Garcia fell apart. While he didn’t take the loss, he was the biggest contributor as he gave up seven runs through 5 1/3 innings of work. The Sox took a two run lead into the ninth when Dustin Hermanson blew the game and the Royals scored three to win it. It was the first time in 105 games that the Kansas Royals entered the ninth inning down and came back to win the game. A few Sox hit homers, but that’s not even worth mentioning.

This afternoon, Mark Buehrle was cruising and the game was tied 2-2 through six when the Royals struck again. A four run seventh put the Royals up by a comfortable margin, and while the Sox answered with three in the top of the eighth, the comeback fell short. The Royals had eight doubles and Taz Iguchi had a three run double.

The Indians are off today and our lead stands at 4 1/2 games. It’s been months since things have been this close. Next we travel to Minnesota, and I bet they’d love nothing better then to put the screws to us. It’s time to win guys.

I really hate when this happens. The White Sox had a nice, comfortable, double digit lead over the Indians. Then the Angels rolled into town and swept us. If the Indians win tonight, they’ll be only five and a half games back of us (five in the loss column) with plenty of time to play. When I wrote last, the White Sox’ magic number was fifteen. Guess what, it’s still at fifteen.

Friday was the only close game, and it was a lapse in our concentration that cost us the game. In the twelth inning, Benjie Molina laid down a bunt to move Vladimir Guerrero to third base. Geoff Blum made the play, barely, but Vlad didn’t stop running and he made a very awkward flop to avoid the tag and score the go ahead run.

Paul Konerko homered for the 37th time this season and he and Juan Uribe accounted for six of the White Sox eight hits. Aaron Rowand drew three walks.

The other two games were blowouts. Saturday we lost 10-5 and Jon Garland was lit up. This afternoon, John Lackey shut us down and Orlando Hernandez gave up three first inning solo homers.

This week we travel to Kansas City. Two of three is paramount (I hate having to say that). The Twins could help us out a ton tonight by taking care of the Indians on ESPN’s game of the week.

I was pleased when I went to the standings and found a nice little number next to the White Sox name. That number is 15, and it’s our magic number. We took two of three against the Kansas City and things are looking up.

The question now is, who will we play in the first round. It looked like it might be the Yankees, but now they’re behind Cleveland, which means if the playoffs started today we’d be playing the Angels.

I’d really like to see the Sox get homefield advantage and the number one seed. We have a nice five game lead over the Red Sox.

This weekend we square off against the Angels. Possible preview of the ALDS?? Only time will tell.

The Tigers rolled into town this holiday weekend. I’ve been a little worried the last couple of weeks as the Indians slowly inched their way up the standings. But a nice four game sweep against Detroit did the trick, and now it’s just a matter of time before the White Sox clinch the division.

In the four games, the White Sox gave up only six runs. We even topped the Red Sox at Fenway today to extend our winning streak to five games. Now if the Tigers could just win a couple against the Indians, it would make my life that much easier.

The Indians are in the hunt for that wild card spot, but I think the Yankees are going to pull it out. Now, Ozzie Guillen just has to rest his guys and make sure nobody gets hurt. Scott Podsednik is back, so we have what should be our playoff lineup in there.

Brandon McCarthy had another very nice outing today. Seven shutout innings, but this time he struck out seven. And this is against one of the best hitting teams in the majors. Nice job, Brandon.