Following last weekend's pair of victories over the Royals, the Sox have now won 3 straight series. That's good news, and given the way they are hitting it's somewhat unbelievable.
2 out of 3 is nice, but a home series against the Royals calls for a sweep. On Sunday, the Sox fielded a lineup whose bottom 3 all either started the season in Charlotte (Ryan Sweeney and Luis Terrerro), or don't have a hit yet this year (Gustavo Molina). You can't really expect to win a major league game with a lineup like that, and the Sox seem to concede games like this way too often. They've won ONE game on Sunday this year, and not coincidentally have a penchant for rolling out the C-team on Sundays as well. That's gotta stop, because the Sox have enough problems scoring runs as it is, and we need every win we can get if we hope to sniff the playoffs this year.
FRIDAY- SOX 2, ROYALS 1
How great would it be if Jon Garland just stepped it up to the next level this year, and became the kind of pitcher who you know your team has an 80% chance of winning every time he takes the mound? I mean, he's won 18 games in back to back seasons, but it doesn't seem like it because you really never know how effective he's going to be in any given game. In this game, he was great, and as hard as the Sox tried to blow the game in the ninth after he gave them 8 shutout innings, a potentially game tying 2 out line drive found it's way to Joe Crede to end the game and give the Sox and Garland the win.
Game Scores- KC- Perez 60, SOX- Garland 73
SATURDAY- SOX 5, ROYALS 4
I don't want to alarm anyone..but Mark Buehrle hasn't been very good since the no-hitter. In his last 3 starts he has posted a game score under 50 in each outing. Still, the Sox are 6-1 when he pitches this year, so how can you argue with that? The Sox floundered and flailed for the first 8 innings of this one, until they tied it in the 9th on a 2 out Juan Uribe double, then won it in the 10th on a rare base hit by Jermaine Dye.
Game Scores- KC- Elarton 44, SOX- Buehrle 46
SUNDAY- ROYALS 11, SOX 1
Just a miserable, miserable game. This is either a throwaway clunker, or the beginning of the end of any realistic hopes in the AL Central. We'll see how they come out this week.
Game Scores- KC- de la Rosa 68, SOX- Vazquez 42
UP NEXT
V. NY YANKEES (17-19)
TUE- Mike Mussina v. John Danks
WED- Jose Contreras v. Chien Ming Wang
THU- Jon Garland v. Matt DeSalvo
In past years, the Sox have smacked around Mussina pretty good. He is 15-15 with a 4.63 ERA and .279 batting average against lifetime. He also hasn't lasted longer than 6 innings in any of his 4 starts this year. Of course, all that goes out the window when you consider the Sox can't hit anybody this year, so we'll see how that works out.
Game 2 should be a favorable matchup for the Sox. Contreras was great in his last start, a complete game shutout win over the Twins, while Wang was torched for 7 runs on 11 hits in his last outing. Again though, the White Sox Can't Hit caveat applies.
As for the finale, well, a Jon Garland needs to be able to beat a Matt DeSalvo (even though DeSalvo has been pretty good in his 2 Yankee starts this year). I think this series could go well for the Sox, as Danks, Contreras, and Garland have been the Sox 3 best pitchers of late, and the Yankees are not throwing any lefties in this series (the Sox are hitting .198 against left handed pitching this year).
AL CENTRAL ROUNDUP
TIGERS 23-14 1st PLACE
LAST WEEKEND: 2-1 at Twins (7-3, 8-2, 4-16)
I don't think anyone, including the Tigers, is going to run away with this division this year. They're 9-3 in May, but they've lost their last 2 games by a combined score of 23-5, and I'll remind everyone that they've already played the Royals nine times this year.
UP NEXT: 4 at BOS (Lost Mon 1-7)
INDIANS 21-14 2nd PLACE -1
LAST WEEKEND: 1-2 at A's (2-8, 6-3, 7-10)
Not surprising that this team went 2-4 on its California adventure. There are big-time pitching problems here, and I bid them good luck with that. They did have Grady Sizemore on the cover of SI last week though, so that's an accomplishment, the Sox didn't even get the cover when they won the World Series.
UP NEXT: 3 at MIN
TWINS 18-19 4th PLACE -5
LAST WEEKEND: 1-2 v. Tigers (3-7, 2-8, 16-4)
The Twins are starting this season pretty much the way they started the last one. So help me God if they end the season like they ended the last one, I'm friggin done with baseball. I feel validated by the fact that the bullshit starting rotation they trotted out to start the season is disintegrating before our very eyes. Sidney Ponson was released yesterday, and the Twins should consider themselves blessed they somehow managed to get 2 major league wins out of him. I really don't know what they were thinking with that one.
UP NEXT: 3 at CLE
GAME SCORE CORNER
So let's take a look at our top 10 MLB pitchers by average Game Score thru 5/14/07. This is based on a minimum of 6 starts.
1. Jake Peavy SD 68.1
2. Dan Haren OAK 63.2
3. James Shields TB 63.1
4. John Maine NYM 63.0
5. Rich Hill CUBS 62.7
6. Brad Penny LAD 62.4
7. Ted Lilly CUBS 62.3
8. Tim Hudson ATL 61.1
9. Tim Wakefield BOS 60.7
10. Jason Marquis CUBS 60.4
Leave it to the Cub to have 3 of the top 10 starting pitchers in the game, yet still find a way to be 7 games out of first and under .500.
Here's the top 10 in the AL:
1. Dan Haren OAK 63.2
2. James Shields TB 63.1
3. Tim Wakefield BOS 60.7
4. Kelvim Escobar LAA 60.3
5. Josh Beckett BOS 60.1
6. Gil Meche KC 59.4
7. Jarrod Washburn SEA 58.7
8. Johan Santana MIN 58.0
9. John Lackey LAA 57.4
10. Mark Buehrle SOX 56.7
I'll take this moment to point out that, yes, the Sox bats have been awful this year, but by my count they've faced 5 of these guys already this year (Escobar, Meche, Washburn, Santana, Lackey), and one of them (Escobar) twice. Of course, that could also be an explanation for why these guys are on the list in the first place.
Meanwhile, how about this James Shields of the Devil Ray? He was an unknown headed into the season, but this 25 year old former 16th round draft pick has an unreal 0.90 WHIP ratio and a .199 batting average against. He's also been the 3rd best pitcher in baseball so far this year, and he does all this without (according to these photos) even looking where he is throwing the ball.
Unfortunately, I see this feel-good story ending prematurely thanks to a hyperextended neck injury that forces his head to stay in that position permanently.
And finally, here are the top 10 game scores of the year:
1. 94 Mark Buehrle SOX v. Rangers 4/18
2. 89 Felix Hernandez SEA at Red Sox 4/11
3. 86 Felix Hernandez SEA v. A's 4/2
Cole Hamels PHI at Reds 4/21
Jake Peavy SD at D-backs 4/25
Jason Marquis CUBS v. Pirates 5/9
7. 85 Kyle Lohse CIN at Cubs 4/15
Chad Durbin DET at Sox 4/25
9. 84 Paul Maholm PIT v. Astros 4/24
James Shields TB at Orioles 5/9
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