Tag Archives: Chicago

Seven in a row…

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The Sox are 7-0 with Manny.

The White Sox have won seven games in a row and haven’t even gained a full game on the Twins. They’ve gained only a half game over the last seven games. The Sox and Twins are both 8-2 over their last ten games and it seems like both teams find a way to win, of course if this keeps up something will have to give next week when the Twins arrive at the Cell.

Both teams won 5-4 on Monday, but the Sox game had a little more drama as a ball that was clearly foul was called a home run. Brandon Inge hit the ball well foul, but the third base ump called it fair. The play went to review after the White Sox protested. The call was reversed and it set-up an extra inning win for the White Sox. Rookie phenom, Chris Sale, retired all eight batters that he faced to earn his first win. Sale’s stats continued to become more impressive with an ERA of  0.66, a WHIP of 1.10, and 19 strike outs in 13-2/3 innings pitched.

Edwin Jackson had his first so-so game with the Sox as he let up four runs over 7-1/3 innings while striking out six. He continued to eat up innings for the White Sox, and his control remained excellent as he only walked one. The Tigers hit Jackson early before he settled in and pitched a decent game.

Paul Konerko sat out with back spasms, but should return on Wednesday or at Thursday the latest. Ozzie Guillen may sit Konerko an extra day to be safe, especially if the Sox continue to win. Manny Ramirez continued to swing a hot bat as he had three hits and scored a run. He has seven hits in four starts with the White Sox, and while he hasn’t hit for power he is getting on base of keeps the line moving. It’s reminiscent of Bobby Abreu, and if that’s the case the Sox will continue to have opportunities to score a lot of runs.

Oh no, Manny’s on deck!!!

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courtesy of AP

The mere sight of Manny Ramirez strikes fear into the hearts of pitchers throughout the league, well at least the bullpen of the Cleveland Indians. Last night Manny came out to pinch-hit in the ninth inning with AJ Pierzynski at the plate. As Hawk Harrelson would say, “AJ got a cookie and he did not miss it.” No he did not, as AJ launched a three-run bomb that helped the Sox win behind another stellar pitching performance from Edwin Jackson.

The Sox have struggled all year against the Indians, so when they had the opportunity to go for the sweep this afternoon I had my doubts, but something crazy happened again with the Sox down 4-2 with two runners on. Paul Konerko stepped into the batters box and Manny stepped into the on-deck circle and BOOM!!! For the second straight game a three-run homer occurred with Ramirez on deck. Bill Melton spoke last night during the White Sox post game on how Manny’s presence will help add to Konerko’s already gaudy totals, 33 home runs, 98 RBI’s, and a .319 batting average. If that’s the case then the White Sox should not have any problems over taking the Twins, because in Yankee fashion they should be able to out slug an opponent.

So a sweep of the Indians is how this ten game road trip starts out for the White Sox, now if we could get a little help from the Tigers tonight and tomorrow things will get even more interesting in the AL Central.

Wild Ride just beginning

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"GRRRRRRRR!"

The the wild ride continues for the White Sox this season as it looks like Manny Ramirez is heading to the White Sox according mlb.com. The Sox will not have to give up anyone, just assume the $3.5 million of Ramirez’s salary. They will hopefully be getting a rejuvenated Manny, not the one who lasted one pitch on Sunday before getting thrown out.

While getting Manny will probably have a positive effect on the White Sox, the question remains why did we not claim Brian Fuentes from the Angels. It seems that would have addressed a more immediate need, like bullpen help. The Sox walked 14 batters on Saturday night with half of that coming from the bullpen. Earlier in the day on Saturday Fuentes recorded a save for the Twins in his first appearance with his new team.

Maybe Manny would have made a difference on Sunday and given the Sox a win and a series win over the Yankees. According to early reports on the radio this morning Ramirez should be joining the Sox sometime today as a straight waiver claim. What the Sox are hoping for is the Manny that arrived in LA in 2008 when he hit 17 home runs and had 53 RBI’s in 53 games with a .396 batting average. If he should put up those types of numbers then the Sox may make a run at this thing. If not, we can just call Manny another Ken Griffey jr. and possibly another player who was on Ken Williams’ fantasy team when he won in his league in the 90′s.

Oney, Shut the (bleep) up!

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Ozzie and Oney stalking Kenny.

I’m so tired of this story and I’m kind of at my breaking point with the Guillen aka Tony Montana Mob Family. Shut up and win the freaking division or just go home for the winter. The latest is the most ridiculous of all, as Oney Guillen has taken it upon himself to tweet about Kenny Williams and his poor skills as a General Manager. In case you somehow missed this today, let me give you the quick version.

Oney claimed that Kenny is lying about situations concerning his father and should have been watching the Sox game instead of watching a Carlos Mencia comedy performance on Saturday night that started at 9:30pm. I wish I had been watching something else like Kenny,but I watched the Sox screw things up again.

Let me just say it, Oney Guillen is a douche bag and needs to shut his mouth. He has no place attacking Williams, and needs to be muzzled like the dog he is. If Ozzie is using Oney to voice his opinion then I think it’s time for Ozzie to go and let Joey Cora take over, but Ozzie shouldn’t be so arrogant to think that he could find a job so easily. Think about it for a second.

If you were the owner of a MLB team would you want to hire Guillen and all the drama that comes with it, or should I say stupidity. While I find Ozzie entertaining for the most part his son has not right to bad mouth one of the best GM’s in baseball. I think Ozzie needs to step up and  not make comments like, “this is America and Oney can say what he wants.” No, Ozzie needs to shut him down and it needs to be done now. It’s ridiculous!

On a funnier note, as we all know Ozzie likes to take pressure off the team by causing distractions with his comments, maybe Oney is trying to take the pressure off Ozzie. Even if that was the case I ask only one thing of Oney, “SHUT THE (BLEEP) UP!”

Quaid, Quade, or McQuade?

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When the Cubs announced that Lou Piniella’s replacement would be Mike Quade I must admit that the inner geek came out in me. Yes, my first thought was the Arnold classic, Total Recall, with one of my favorite Arnold lines, “I didn’t know you were so kinky.” Hilarious. Then I realized that not only was the spelling different, but so was the pronunciation.

The interim Cubs manager pronounces his name Quad – EE, not Qwade. There was much disappointment when this realization hit me, but even more disappointment when I realized how much more entertaining things would be on the North side with Quaid or Lone Wolf McQuade as manager. No offense to Quade since he’s unbeaten as a Cubs manager, but he has huge shoe’s to fill in Lou Piniella. Piniella was quote machine as manager of the Cubs, and entertained no matter what was going on with the team. Good or bad, he had something entertaining to say, but Chicago has lost that for the last two months of the season. Ozzie Guillen will have to carry the torch for this type of behavior, and I’m sure he’s ready.

Everyone, please humor me for moment and picture Arnold walking out to mound after a Cubs reliever walks the bases loaded screaming, “You lack discipline!” or “I’m going to ask you a series of questions and I want you to answer them?” How about action legend, Chuck Norris, not saying much, but as Aramis Ramirez walks back to the dugout after another olé play Norris just karate kicks him in the face. That would be entertaining. I would go to a Cubs game to see that before the season ends, but that’s me just dreaming. Instead, Chicago gets Quade, a straight-shooter with very little to pontificate.

That sick feeling is back

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What you talkin' about Orlando?

The only good news for how I feel about the Sox right now is it’s exactly how I felt on June 6, after they lost another series to the Cleveland Indians and were 9-1/2 games back. However, I will now add some facts that will not make myself or you feel better if you’re a White Sox fan, but smile if you’re a Twins or Cubs fan.

The Sox are not about to play NL Central bottom feeders as they did back in June, which helped jump-start them on a historic run. Instead they are about to play an AL East bottom feeder, the Orioles, followed by the AL East leading, New York Yankees, not as easy. You would think the Sox would feast on the Orioles, but if their play against them a week-and-a-half ago is indicative of their performance this week they will not fair well.

The bullpen has been terrible giving up late inning leads in about every game this past week. To make matters even worse Matt Thornton may be heading to the DL with a sore forearm. The Sox also have seven games left with the Boston Red Sox, which could be trouble, also.

The Twins have extended their lead to five games after the Sox lost again to the AL Central bottom feeders, KC Royals, for the second time in three games that were played in a less than 24-hour period. Can the White Sox rebound from this? I really don’t know at this point, time’s a wasting and if the starting pitchers do not start going nine innings we might not have a chance. Another sad Monday in Chicago baseball.

The Peavy Effect

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It took until now but the White Sox are finally feeling the effects on losing Jake Peavy for the year as I’m officially saying that starter, Freddy Garcia, is out of gas. A lot of people probably are thinking that the Sox would not have gotten Edwin Jackson if Peavy was still in the rotation, but don’t be so sure about that. The idea at the trading deadline is to make your team better, and if Peavy did not go down to injury and the Sox had the opportunity to add Jackson to one of the best pitching staffs in baseball then they would have.

Garcia has not pitched that well since Jackson has shown-up, and has even commented that he’s the odd man out going into next season. That’s obvious since Jackson is as good of a pitcher as Garcia was in his prime, if not better. Jackson continues his domination of offenses since coming to the White Sox with 11 strike outs against the Tigers on Saturday. Since arriving Jackson has compiled some pretty impressive stats over a three-game span; 24 strikeouts, three earned runs, only four walks, and a 1.35 ERA over 20-innings pitched. His one blemish would be he has let up 20 hits, but he’s certainly gotten out of whatever jams he’s gotten into.

As Sox fans you can only imagine the rotation in 2010 with Peavy pitching down the stretch, but we’ll have to wait until 2011 to see that rotation. Instead, the Sox now sit three games back of the Twins since J.J. Putz has had one really bad pitch in each of his last two appearances that helped the Tigers win. You can blame Putz, but the lack of offense on Saturday that had many opportunities again, and another poor outing by Garcia put the Sox in a bad position. They did battle back and took a lead, but a poor bullpen outing and bad fielding lead to their demise on Sunday.

Hopefully the White Sox will show-up with clear heads to Target Field on Tuesday evening as they send their top three pitchers against the Twins, and let’s hope the Sox hitters don’t let the Twins’ pitchers off the hook like they did on their last home stand.

A little revenge

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Avila celebrates what would be the game winner.

I’m sure the Tigers wouldn’t mind spoiling the White Sox postseason hopes at all this season, especially since many of players on the 2010 Tigers were part of last years team. The Sox basically took it to the Tigers in the last few weeks of the season aiding in their demise into a one-game playoff against the Twins. UGH… the Twins. The Twins won that and the Tigers went home. I believe a team should compete until the end of the season no matter what their situation (don’t watch the Cubs,) and the top three AL Central teams do just that.

Jim Leyland is a hard-ass and would never settle for a team that just sits back and coasts in any situation, he expects that everyday and the Tigers are a mirror image of that attitude. Last night is a perfect example of how they scraped out a victory from the Sox pushing the Sox two games behind the Twins. Edwin Jackson struck out 11 and newly ordained closer, J.J. Putz struck out three, but not before he let a man on and gave up a go-ahead, two-run shot to Alex Avila. Another blown save for the White Sox bullpen, not good.

I really thought this season it was going to be the White Sox and the Tigers battling for first with the Twins looking in, but that’s not the case, again. Instead, it’s the Twins leading the division looking to win the AL Central, AGAIN! The sad part about that is the White Sox and Tigers are the only AL Central teams to get out of the first round, the Twins get there and choke every year they make the playoff, what a waste.

Welcome Back Mark!

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Beckham and Teahen go yard!

The other night I text my good friend John, “Viciedo has to go. He’s a fastball hitter and he can’t hit a fastball.” John replied, “Teahen will be back soon.” Soon meant Friday night and the Sox may have gotten the left-handed power hitter they wanted without giving Gordon Beckham, Alexei Ramirez, and young arms.

This team was built with Teahen as a starter for the White Sox under the guise that he had the ability to hit 30 home runs since he would have many warm home games at US Cellular Field. Unfortunately Teahen went down with a broken finger before the weather warmed-up in Chicago. He benefited from the steamy weather on Friday night as his return to the Sox included a 2-run homer and a base hit helping the Sox to an 8-4 victory.

The Sox have scored a total of 21 runs in four games on this home stand and those numbers should only increase in the next few days. They also have 35 hits over the four game span with five homers. Not too shabby, but they are only 2-2 at the moment on this home stand and still trail the Twins by a game, as they held on for a 4-3 win last night over Oakland.

The Sox used the Tigers as a springboard to a 25-5 run that began on June 9 and hopefully they will use them again for a similar run. I like our chances in the series with Edwin Jackson going today followed by Tiger tamer, Freddy Garcia, on Sunday.

Frustration, Inc.

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The only damage done on Thursday was the psyche of the White Sox offense as they stranded the bases loaded three times. This was the most frustrating game that I’ve viewed all year and I can’t even imagine what was going through the heads of the White Sox hitters as they left nine runners on base from those three innings while stranding a total of 12 runners.

Francisco Lariano pitched his way out of jams over and over again and was definitely the beneficiary of impatient hitting by the White Sox, as well as some generous calls. Bottom line is the Sox offense did not get it done when they had ability to definitely put more than six runs on the board.

Gavin Floyd pitched his worst outing since May allowing six earned runs on ten hits, but kept the game at 3-1 until Jason Kubel hit an 0-2 pitch over the left field wall with two on and two out. It came on Floyd’s 125th pitch of the game and it was a tough outcome for Floyd who deserved better as he should have been pitching with a cushion.

So the Sox fell one game out of first on a night where they had every opportunity to win the game in easy fashion. The good news is the Tigers are coming to town.