Dead Men Walking

The White Sox look completely lifeless right now. They started the week in Minnesota where the Twins swept them in a series that was reminiscent of the Jamie Burke affair in 2004. They followed that up by dropping game one tonight againt Toronto.

Mark Buehrle threw a two-hitter and still took the loss. Both hits were homeruns hit by Aaron Hill and Frank Thomas. Buehrle has been trying to pick up his one-hundredth career win for his last six starts, but his teammates are not helping him at all.

Adding insult to injury, Darrin Erstad left in the sixth inning with an apparent left ankle injury incurred while swinging the bat. It was the same ankle that has plagued Erstad for the past few seasons. There has been no anouncement as to the severity of the injury or to whom would be called up to replace him. The Sox have already lost both Scott Podsednik and Pablo Ozuna and losing Erstad would leave them with out a viable lead-off hitter.

Falling Apart

The White Sox are terrible right now. I went to the game yesterday and witnessed Andrew Sisco’s last White Sox game before the Sox demoted him. Unfortunately, Mike MacDougal is still a part of the White Sox bullpen. However, the demotion of a teammate did not jumpstart the White Sox in the least. The answered back by being thrashed by the Twins today.

The pivotal point in the game was a temper tantrum thrown by whiney bitch Ron Gardenhire. Apparently, Gardenhire thought that AJ Pierzynski had stepped on first baseman Justin Morneau’s foot. Of course, WGN’s replays showed that Pierzynski did no such thing, but why should that stop Gardenhire from firing up his team by being an ass? Following his tirade, the Twins exploded to bust the game wide open against Jose Contreras and David Aardsma. The only fitting solution to this is for John Danks to put a ball in Morneau’s ear hole during tomorrow’s contest.

I am going to have to check the calendar, but I am pretty sure that it is September of 2006 again. Dewan Day, who replaced Sisco on the active roster, was victimized by some shoddy defense in the eighth inning, and it was painfully obvious that the Sox’s position players had given up a la last September. I guess Anaheim has the rally monkeys and we have the surrender monkeys. Just lovely!

Turning It Around

The Sox banged out 10 runs on 13 hits tonight, and John Danks moved to 3-4. The Oakland Athletics managed three runs against Danks and one in the ninth against Andrew Sisco, who tried very hard to give up more. With the exception of Sisco, the Sox looked very good tonight. Paul Konerko and Tadahito started to rally killing double plays on line drives, and Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome each hit a bomb. Thome, Dye, Rob Mackowiak, and Alex Cintron combined for nine of the Sox 13 hits.

A big negative was the pitching of Sisco. With two outs and nobody on, Sisco allowed two hits, a walk, and a run scored before pitching Coach Don Cooper gave him a sermon on the mound. Following the sermon, he miraculously recovered and induced Nick Swisher to pop out to reserve center fielder Luis Terrero.

However, the White Sox fans were the biggest negative on the night. They booed Sisco after he allowed the earned run. This is counter-productive. Sisco needs to have the self-confidence in his ability to improve if he is going to be successful booing him at home cannot be good for his confidence. I urge White Sox fans to avoid booing their own players. That does not mean that you cannot expect better results, but booing him while he is on the mound is not going to change anything. His results will force Kenny Williams and Ozzie Guillen’s hands to make a change more than anything will.

With the win, it looks like the White Sox are getting hot. They have scored 28 runs in the three since Jim Thome’s return, and the starting pitching still looks very good. Outside of Sisco, even the bullpen looked good tonight, but one night does not mean that they are turning it back around. However, great offense, starting pitching, and Bobby Jenks should be enough for the Sox to get on a hot streak.

Good News, Bad News Sunday

Let us start with the bad news because it is always nice to end on a high note. Joe Crede left today's game with a stiff back. Crede decided against surgery last off-season and went with stretching and conditioning instead. I i's only May and his back is acting up again. That is not a good sign.

Due to last week's double-header against the Yankees, today's entire game was pitched by relief pitchers, and they allowed six earned runs in nine innings. David Aardsma was the main culprit, and he allowed four earned run in just one inning pitched. He was lights out for the first month of the season, but he has been awful lately. The bullpen is going to have to get things straightened out or some changes are going to have to be made. General Manager Kenny Williams is not afraid to "shuffle the deck" if need be.

On the plus side, the final score was Chicago White Sox 10 Chicago Cubs 6! This is definitely a good thing. Additionally, Nick Massett two earned runs in 5.2 innings of work while striking out and walking three batters each. He was very impressive and moved to 2-1 on the year. It appears that the Sox have a viable sixth starter if they need him again. He also provides another option for late in games if Aardsma does not start playing better.

Offensively, the Sox actually had an offense today. They scored ten runs in a game and more than five (7) in an inning for the first time all season. A.J. Pierzynski was the hero with a seventh inning grand slam that proved to be the difference maker, and Jim Thome had a pinch hit walk to help set Pierzynksi up for his slam. The addition of Thome is already starting to pay dividends. I fully expect the Sox offense to take off from here. Konerko and Dye seem to be heating up just in time to support Thome.

More Crap

The White Sox bullpen blew a late inning lead against the Chicago Cubs for the second day in a row. Many felt that David Aardsma should have been brought in instead of Mike MacDougal in yesterday's game, so Ozzie brought Aardsma in to blow the game today. I guess you lose either way. Oh yeah! Boone Logan gave up a grand slam, also.

Some morons on White Sox Interactive are saying that Ozzie should have brought Thornton in to pitch the eighth today. They argue that he and Jenks are our two best pitchers. That's kind of funny when you consider that Thornton's ERA was over 5 in late April, and the Ozzie has only allowed him to throw more than two-thirds of an inning one time since then. Thornton has been our second best pitcher lately precisely because Ozzie isn't letting him pitch very often or face many pitchers. Let's make him the eighth inning set-up man and watch him fail like he did at the beginning of the season. That's a great idea!

I don't think that anyone knows what is actually wrong with the White Sox right now. They rarely hit very well, and they pitch like they did today when they do hit well. The Fox broadcast team of Kenny Albert and Joe Girardi pointed out that they Sox have not scored five runs in an inning all year. That is obviously part of the problem. However, it does not explain why the pitching looks fine when the offense doesn't score enough runs, but the bullpen implodes when they do. It's getting mind numbing at this point.

I generally like to end my blog entries on a positive note, so I would like to point out that the Sox's offense was much better today. Jermaine Dye is heating up, and it was good to see Joe Crede contribute. If Dye and Crede continue to heat up, their presence along with the return of Jim Thome on Monday should see the Sox finally start to score some runs. The question is whether the bullpen will get its act together.

Contreras Blanks Twins

The White Sox won the three game series with the Twins today. Jose Contreras threw his second career shutout, and the Sox won 3-0. Ryan Sweeney was the hitting star with an RBI single and a run scored on a nice hook slide at home plate. Sweeney's RBI was set up by an equally nifty hook slide by Rob Mackowiak when he stole second base. All three runs were manufactured, which the Sox will have to continue to do if Konerko and Dye are not going to start hitting.

Checking In

I haven't blogged in awhile because of time restraints due to graduate school and a child with pneumonia. I will try to keep up when I have time.

The Sox beat Minnesota tonight after dropping a game to the Twins the night before. Poor relief pitching was on display in both games. Last night saw the Sox blow a 4-1 lead in the eighth, and Nick Massett gave up a homerun to Justin in Morneau to lose it. They won 6-3 tonight, but they had a 6-1 lead in the eighth. The Twins scored two runs in that inning and brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth before Bobby Jenks was able to pick up the save.

On the plus side, the Sox's four first inning runs doubled their run support for John Danks, who was outstanding on the hill tonight. Danks allowed just one earned run and actually took a no-hitter into the fifth inning. He would have taken it into the sixth if not for a poor call by the first base umpire. Danks worked quickly, and he challenged the Twins' hitters by pitching to all four corners of the strike zone. Darrin Jackson commented that he looked "Burly-esque," which was an apt description of tonight's performance. It looks like Kenny Williams acquired a good one when he traded Brandon McCarthy for young Danks.

No Offense, But We Aren't Hitting

The White Sox bats continued to be in slumber mode during tonight's 5-2 loss to Seattle. Jarrod Washburn picked up his second win by holding the White Sox’s hitters to four hits over seven innings while striking out four. The Sox offense looked anemic all night with the only offense coming on two solo homeruns by Luis Terrero and AJ Pierzinski. The Sox called Terrero up before the game to replace Brian Anderson. They sent Anderson back to AAA yesterday.

Unfortunately, the relief pitching was almost as bad as the offense. Mike MacDougal came in to an eighth inning one on and one out situation, and he gave up a 2-2 double to the Mariners’ third basemen, Adrian Beltre. Beltre was three for four with two runs score in the game. Left-hander Matt Thornton then relieved MacDougal. Thornton struck out the switch-hitting Jose Vidro before allowing a 0-2 two RBI single to Raul Ibanez turning a 3-2 deficit to a 5-2 deficit and effectively ending the ballgame.

The sad part of it was that the poor offense ruined a solid effort by the White Sox defensively and Javier Vazquez on the mound. Vazquez allowed four earned runs in 7.1 innings pitched, but one of those earned runs was the inherited runner that scored when Thornton was pitching. Defensively, the Sox did not allow an error all game long and had a couple of nice defensive plays. Third basemen Pablo Ozuna made a great catch against the railing in the fifth on a Jose Lopez pop-up. Then, in the sixth, the Mariners had runners on first and third with Richie Sexson at the plate and one out. Sexson had already hit a homerun earlier in the game. He flew out to Luis Terrero in deep center for an apparent sacrifice fly. However, Terrero realized that the runner on first was also tagging and fired to shortstop Juan Uribe who made the tag just before Beltre could score from third. It was a great defensive highlight that kept the Sox in the ballgame.