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.
I 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!
Watching the Dandelions Grow 