Tag Archives: for the win!

June 6, 2011 · 11:47 pm

Finally, a win for John Danks. Or: But, run support is still hard to come by.

A recap, in list form, and not really in any particular order.

1. John Danks finally collects a win. It was a pretty much a pitcher’s duel until the 8th inning (with the exception of a hanging slider in the 4th, which resulted in a Paul Konerko solo HR), so the run support was still hard to come by, but at least we weren’t outpaced by the Mariners.

2. In the 7th, Gordon Beckham nearly got his head taken off by a high-inside pitch (#6). He got his revenge by hammering a line drive up the middle on pitch #8, plating AJ Pierzynski (2-0, ChiSox).

3. And, there is something to be said for the contagious nature of good play (unfortunately for all parties involved, Adam Dunn still appears to be immune). Brent Lillibridge has lit a bit of a fire under the collective rear ends of the defense. Beckham and Morel have come alive, Quentin’s been busting his rear end and Juan Pierre’s been trucking along, flashing a bit of leather over in left.

4. Jesse Crain continues to come out and be ridiculously awesome and provide solid clutch disaster-relief pitching. If he continues to do what he does, even 8 or 9 times out of 10? He’s more than earning his paycheck. Also, I’m glad he’s on our team.

5. And, Sergio Santos. The man is an animal. Another solid 3-up, 3-down, 7-pitch save. Everything I said about Jesse Crain applies equally here. Except, I think the fact that he has only been a pitcher for about 5 minutes makes it even more unbelievable. I wonder if we are allowed to call him the closer, yet.

6. And, speaking of Brent Lillibridge. Firstly, aside from a (somewhat random) less-than-successful bunt attempt, he was walked 3 times. THREE. Either they are afraid to pitch him in the zone, or they are intentionally pitching around him to get to Adam Dunn. We are clearly in the twilight zone. And, secondly, we had another addition to “Brent Lillibridge continues to make a case for more playing time” files.

Clicking on the picture to the left will take you to a clip of – possibly – his most ridiculously awesome catch, definitely saving some runs. He may still think of himself as an infielder, but I don’t think anyone else is ever going to again.

It wasn’t perfect, and we definitely won this one on defense, but it was a good, fun game with lots more things for the list of things that don’t suck than things that do. I’ll take it.

And, we do it again tomorrow. I’m probably not going to be able to catch that one, and with King Felix on the hill for Seattle, my heart probably won’t be able to take it, if I do.

Lets build some momentum, here. Go Sox!

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June 4, 2011 · 12:54 am

Thank heavens for the long ball. Or: Even a sort-of ugly win is still a win.

Ladies and gentlemen, this:

Is Brent Morel.

He plays third base for the Chicago White Sox and he would like to make sure that you are all aware that he is not just “the other Brent” on the South Side.

Seriously. Mark Buehrle pitched a solid game. Carlos Quentin hit a 3-run homer to (FINALLY!!!) get us out of an inning without leaving the bases full(AGAIN). Brent Lillibridge hits yet another home run (why is there never anyone on base when he does that?), Adam Dunn *finally* gets a hit against a left-handed pitcher (0-40 no more!), Juan Pierre makes an awesome running catch (to help Matt Thornton out of a jam. He was more happy about that in his post-game interview – he still remembers dropping those fly balls that cost Matt some save opportunities in April – than about his HR) and then follows it up with his first HR of the season (he looked like he couldn’t believe it, either!). And, a showy 4-out-save from El Matador (ie: Sergio Santos).

And, yet, it takes all of that combined to equal the awesomeness that was Brent Morel this evening. 3 separate web gems at 3B and also going 3-for-4?

There’s a new Brent in town, y’all.

This game was a bit messy: Team RISP: 2-for-12 and Team LOB: 10. Bases loaded, no-one out more than once and we couldn’t get anyone across the plate. 5 of our 6 runs came on home-runs (3-run, solo HR, solo HR), and the other came off a rookie error from the Detroit pitcher. It was a bit frustrating.

But, a win is a win. A win for us, a loss for the Tigers (snapping our losing-streak against them!), a loss for Cleveland and a loss for KC???! Everything went our way in the standings today, and I will most certainly take it.

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June 1, 2011 · 5:17 pm

A comeback that ends with sweep. Or: Maybe I should speak too early more often.

Well, when all was said and done, that ended up being a heck of a fun ballgame.

I’m glad I spoke too soon about Gavin Floyd. Anyone who has stopped by here before knows that I’m rather partial to him, even with his very unpredictable Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde pitching personality that can make him frustrating to watch – painful, when he’s having a bad day, but a pleasure to watch on a good one.

After he finally fumbled his way out of the 3-run, 7-hit 2nd inning, he came back and (including the last out of the second) retired 8 straight in short order. He totally got himself back into the ballgame sitting on the bench in the top of the 3rd, only allowing two more hits (one of those being the usual solo-HR that he gives up with relative frequency). So, good on him and I’m glad to see him continue his success against the Red Sox – sure it wasn’t a 10-K highlight reel, but it definitely got the job done. I don’t know if he needed a pep talk, a slap upside the head, a cup of coffee or a hug, but whatever worked, I’ll take it. And, likely, so will he.

Other highlights:

  • It’s quite amusing to watch how every team trots out a completely random – and significantly older – line-up when they face Wakefield and his knuckleball. 65mph and it puts on quite a show. I don’t think Quentin really knew what he was looking at. :)
  • Omar Vizquel leading off second and dancing behind Wakefield like he was going to try to steal 3rd. Not only is the concept rather comical, it felt like we suddenly woke up in 1994.
  • Alexei Ramirez continues to be *on fire*. He (and Paul Konerko) are probably the two position players on the ChiSox that really deserve significant all-star consideration.
  • Chris Sale, coming out of the bullpen for another 1 1/3 inning of relief. He keeps this up, Matt Thornton’s going to get booted out of his set-up man job, too.
  • Santos, for the win. A mildly-dramatic fly-out to Lillibridge in RF (man, the two of them make quite a pair), a non-dramatic pop-up to Rios (hanging out in CF for a half-inning) and a strike ’em out swinging to end the game. A nice little 3 up, 3 down and a sweep of the Red Sox and the White Sox go home 5-5 for the road trip.
  • And, of course, what’s a game these days without something about Brent Lillibridge? Yesterday, he missed a HR over the monster by about 2 inches (and ended up with a single), and in the top of the 4th, the same thing, but at least he ended up with a double and an RBI for his troubles today, putting us on the board for the first time. However, the moment he (clearly) had been waiting for came at the top of the 6th when he SLAMMED one over the AAA sign and into the parking lot.

    It’s funny. For a back-up position-player, it really seemed like that HR was completely inevitable this series. He just had that air about him from the first time he stepped up to the plate at Fenway. And, it was a beauty.

I would like to draw your attention to the graphic at the top of this post (from the front page of chicagowhitesox.com). It made me grin when I saw it and it is definitely one thing that I’d like to file it under “awesome things you never could have predicted on opening day”.

Go (White) Sox!

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May 31, 2011 · 10:48 pm

Another win in Boston. Or: Too close for comfort.

Well, there was some great stuff tonight. Alexei was a machine on both offense and defense tonight (though, I’d still like to see him wallop one over the green monster this series), Beckham and AJ both coming up big, Chris Sale coming in for the last out of the game (in what should never have been a save situation) and providing a solid 3-pitch strikeout that brought back memories of his solid 3-innings of relief in Toronto, and – as usual – Phil Humber, just quietly and efficiently going out there and pitching solid 7 innings of work. He continues to make everyone in White Sox management continue to scratch their heads over what on earth they are going to do with the 6-man rotation. Extra bonus points for consistency.

I gather that there wasn’t much said about it on the Chicago broadcast, but I had the Boston feed and they were convinced there was fan interference on a weird play in the bottom of the 9th with 2 out. There was a catch that Lillibridge missed in the RF corner (though, props to him for a monster single that would have been a HR in any other park and was only a few inches short at Fenway), that they replayed about 15 times (THANKS FOR RUBBING IT IN!) and it was definitely the wrong call. A fan definitely touched the ball. But, after 15 viewings from 3 different angles, there was no way of telling out which side of the wall the interference was on. It should have been either a dead ball or a home run, but even the Boston announcers weren’t willing to be indignant on the Red Sox behalf. Instant replay? No help here.

And, all I am going to say about the 10-2 ballgame that became a 10-7 ballgame?

The bullpen happened.

Another in the win column and one more chance tomorrow. Go (White) Sox!

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May 30, 2011 · 11:19 pm

Another fine Jake Peavy outing. Or: That was much more pleasant.

Thankfully, this game was a lot more fun than the last three. It would have been a heck of a lot more fun at Fenway today than it was at the Rogers Centre Sky Dome this weekend.

It wasn’t perfect – by a long stretch. Brent Lillibridge really needs to learn to relax before the 9th inning (though, it was still nice to see him in RF today. Rightly or wrongly, he gives me a sense of security out there), we left the bases loaded far more frequently than we really should, and Matt Thornton shouldn’t need to walk back to the dugout between innings like someone told him there was no Santa Claus in order to come out and pitch a strong inning.

And, then there was the weird stuff – Carlos Quentin getting hit by the pitch TWICE and Jesse Crain (who FINALLY gets to start an inning for the first time in forever and not come in to mop up someone else’s mess) gets nailed in the back/side by a line drive – and still manages to get the out – and the really odd late-strike-3 (possibly should have been ball 4) call for Juan Pierre and the late call when Lillibridge was possibly thrown out CS at 3rd. It seemed like a ball-4, late-throw to 3rd rather than a strike-him-out, throw-him-out that it was called. Or, maybe that’s what it looked like through my ChiSox-colored glasses.

Regardless, Peavy pitched a solid 7-innings today, Konerko got on the board with a solo homer that almost cleared the billboard 10 feet above the green monster, Matt Thornton really did pitch a solid 9th, everyone in the line-up got at least one hit tonight, there were clutch hits at least some of the time that we needed them… and, Ozzie gave a bat to a small boy sitting behind the ChiSox dugout.

Someone needs to get the White Sox bags of frozen peas to slap onto their bruised eyes, backs, and arms – because I’d like to do this all over again tomorrow.

Go Sox!

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May 26, 2011 · 11:09 pm

North-of-the-Border 9th inning drama. Or: The Sox play the Jays and wacky hijinks ensue.

It’s no surprise to anyone who has watched any appreciable amount of White Sox baseball so far in 2011 that we have had (more than) our fair share of late inning drama.

It’s also (apparently) no surprise to everyone who has watched any of the Blue Jays’ action, that the same could be said about them.

Scoreless until the 5th, when A.J. Pierzynski singled, Omar Vizquel singled, (Beckham popped out) and Juan Pierre singled to Bautista in RF and AJ managed to beat the throw (seriously). The Jays tied it up in the 6th and that’s where it was when Jesse Crain came out to replace Phil Humber in the 8th. Patterson on first, Bautista at the plate and two out. A typical “let’s call Jesse” scenario, really. And, typically, Bautista walks and Jesse Crain makes it out of the inning safely.

Which, obviously, opened the 9th inning floodgates.

The thing that was the surprise was that, often, the Sox have let it slip away in the end, and the Jays have a tendency to come roaring back.

But, today, Alex Rios ends up with a single, but reaches second on a throwing error (I have a soft for Johnny Mac and was surprised it was him who opened the door) and then third on a wild pitch. Gordon Beckham gets HBP and then steals second (no, really!) and then both of them score on a ANOTHER throwing error. 3-1 Sox, and that’s where it ends (after Santos comes in and turns off the lights on the Jays).

Other random oddities about tonight?
-Juan Pierre had all of our RBIs
-AJ, Juan Pierre, Alex Rios, and Omar had all of our hits
-Quentin and Konerko, (and Dunn) were 0-fer
-the ChiSox caught someone stealing (on a sketchy call)
-the ChiSox stole 2 bases
-Phil Humber pitches 7.2 awesome innings, Jesse Crain walks Bautista and gets Rivera to ground out and manages to bag the W (and, hey, I’ll be happy any time Crain gets a win – and he deserves it for saving the collective butts of the White Sox on a very regular basis – but, at times, the win/save/loss/hold/etc rules are still some of the most non-sensical rules in baseball).
-It’s entirely possible that AJ actually has more friends in Toronto than Alex Rios. Wowie. Apparently the Jays fans know how to hold a grudge, sheesh.

It’s like this entire game was turned on its head, like Canada is opposite-land.

Today’s post deserves photos of the pitchers because, when you get down to it, it really was a pitcher’s duel.

See you on the flip side, y’all.

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May 21, 2011 · 6:27 pm

Boing! Or: A fantastic rebound all-around.

So, fantastically, last night’s mini-meltdown didn’t set the tone for the day.

It was a good day all around. There was pitching, there was relief-pitching (Pena?!!), there was defense (Rios?! Lillibridge!) and there was offense (pretty much everyone!).

I could wax poetic about how enjoyable it is to watch Mark Buehrle pitch (but I think Catherine will come through on that front!), and how awesome I still think Omar is, and how much hustle we see from Lillibridge every time he gets the chance (the running catch! the HR! the fact that he looked so overwhelmed during his post-game, on-the-field interview!), McPherson’s great stabbing catch, and the way that the bats were generally just lit up today.

However, I won’t.

All I am going to do is sit back and relax and enjoy the feeling.

Because, I feel happy and carefree and kind of like this today:

(I am, however, going to post the box score. Just for me. Because it’s pretty to look at.)

Go Sox!

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May 12, 2011 · 1:09 am

Extra innings. Again. Or: A wild win in the 10th means I’ll be tired all day tomorrow.

1. I woke up (again, sleeping through the first few innings) in time to catch the end of a solid, and confidence-inducing, if unspectacular, return of Jake Peavy. Congrats to him for all of his hard work. I’m psyched to have him back and hope he stays healthy. And, then, resigned to a loss, I figured I’d catch a couple of innings before heading off to sleep and then all of a sudden Jesse Crain comes in and I haven’t seen him pitch in a while (gotta root for the hometown boy!) and the game looks like it’s been put away by the Angels, but then it all flips on its head with wild pitches, batter interference and a little help from OOOOMAR!

2. Any time that things get all wonky in ChiSox land and Omar Vizquel gets to come into the game, I’m cool with it. Though, I’d prefer if it didn’t happen because of someone else’s injury. And, tonight, he didn’t let me down. He started with a good defensive play at third and then proceeded to double, driving in a run, followed by a sac fly in the next inning. *devilhorns* The Angels announcers were calling him “The Pesky Omar Vizquel”. :) I’ll take it.

3. Dunn was running everywhere tonight. I think he probably stole Paul Konerko’s pink shoes and spray painted them. He was running with conviction, it was kinda awesome.

4. I’m still feelin’ Brent Lillibridge these days. It’s becoming routine to see him come in for Quentin late in the game and I’m really digging it as an overall strategy. Quick on base, can pull out defense when he has to, and saving Quentin a little bit of wear and tear – since it seems like he’s becoming a leg on which we stand. :)

5. Santos. Again. Solid, with a propensity to walk just a few too many batters, I think. But, still a good solid outing and I’m always glad to see him on the mound. He did a good job (with some defensive help) to keep the score steady while the White Sox had a late inning rally. Second win for him, awesome.

6. HOLY CRAP. The 9th innings in this season are going to take years off my life. But, it helps when they go our way. :) If I could watch every game with either the Angels’ or Rays’ announcers, I would and I was reminded of why tonight. Interesting, poised and so classy. It was a pleasure to spend the evening with them, though I know they would have been happier without our late rally.

6. Konerko’s flying catch on the second-to-last out was a thing of beauty. But, it probably won’t make the highlight reel because, shockingly, it was actually overshadowed by the play he made on the last out. (It did make mlb.com [here].)

7. Which brings us to Thornton. Who, I admit, still makes me cringe with fear when I see him warming up in the pen. But, what was a solid outing on the mound (again, aided by a late-inning burst of defense) turned into a defensive play that probably bought him a little bit of confidence from some of the ChiSox faithful. Because, WHAT?! The 3-1 defensive play was ridiculous.

pk play.jpgI have said it before, and I will say it again. I would always rather see a game end on an awesome defensive play than a walk-off any day of the week. And, this 1-2 punch from Konerko is going right up with Lillibridge’s 1-2 punch from the series against the Yankees as some of my top moments of the season.

Drama-rama tonight. And, we manage to avoid heading back into a skid.

Go, White Sox!

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May 8, 2011 · 9:37 pm

Pink is my lucky color, too. Or: Another win. This one for Santos.

So, two in a row. Hasn’t happened much lately, and it really is a reason to be excited these days. And, fine, there are teams elsewhere in the AL and (presumably) in the NL that would laugh at the ChiTown fans being excited about a 2 game win streak, but we’ll totally take what we can get.

There was some good stuff to talk about today. Firstly, sad that Buehrle wasn’t able to get his win, but it was nice to see Santos put one in the win column. He’s been a little bit of a bright light in the midst of our early bullpen troubles and it was neat that he got to pull out the W today.

W-L: 1-0; ERA: 0.00; SV-SVO; 3 for 3 – 15 scoreless innings

AWESOME

However, that being said, Santos’ solid outing (striking out three, only walking one and sporting a fantastic pink necklace) is not actually what I have chosen as the highlight of this game today.

The highlight of the game today is, without a doubt, Paul Konerko’s pink cleats. I was scouring the depths of the internet for a photo of them, but I have sadly come up empty.

Instead, I will link you to the following clip. This is the play that put the White Sox on the board for the first time today, it was the last play that I got to see before I headed out for work (it is becoming increasingly apparent that my work schedule is completely nonsensical, isn’t it?), contains some questionable fielding that was – for once – not courtesy of the White Sox, and, of course, featuring the awesome pink cleats of awesomeness(tm). [click here]

Happy Mother’s Day (what’s left of it) and let’s see if we can keep this momentum going tomorrow in LA – a heavy feat, but if we need extra help, I’m going to send a request to Paul Konerko to break out the pink cleats again.

Hey, it couldn’t hurt!

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May 8, 2011 · 1:51 am

Optimism is easier when you have help. Or: A win in the west.

It’s easy to be optimistic today. Especially when your scoreboard looks like this:

The bats were on fire tonight. Just like the expected AL Central standings are upside down, the batting order decided to stand on its head, too. The bottom 3 guys were smokin’ out there. It was nice to see. Not that I can explain what lit the fire under the butts of Morel, Beckham and Rios, but I’ll take it. They went 6-for-6 with two doubles and two RBIs and who would have thunk it? There was also some better-than-average defense, so that was a plus. (There was also some great defense by the Mariners… I’m still smarting a little from the home run that they stole from Pierzynski).

[Also, as a side note, I apologize to Mariners fans everywhere – and to the man himself – but I really can’t help but giggle and think of board games every time I hear Milton Bradley’s name.)

But, today’s chosen positivity comes from Gavin Floyd. Who I kind of love like Catherine (of “The Wizard of Ozzie“) loves Mark Buehrle, even though I want to shake him and tell him to just calm down and breathe a lot of the time when I watch him pitch.

He was, again, pretty rock solid – with the notable exception of the 2nd inning – and was really in a zone tonight. It was a pleasure to watch him work his stuff for the first game I was able to catch in a long time.

99 Strikes. Awesome.

The game today was MLB.tv’s free game of the day (which also meant I could listen to the Seattle feed – bonus!) and meant that I could catch the game at work. Which ain’t too shabby.

So, all in all: Watching a baseball game at work, watching the Sox grab a win, watching Gavin pitch a great game that was actually supported by the rest of the team, and some surprise action from 7, 8 and 9.

goldstar-award.jpgEdited to say: In fact, it was such a generally solid and cohesive outing all around that I am going to give everyone a gold star tonight. Go, team!

It was a good Saturday night.

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