2007 State of the Sox

April 17: Rangers 8, White Sox 1

If his last two starts are any indication, it could be a long season for Jon Garland.  Not only did he receive one run of support for the second straight start, but his defense faltered on him, too.



With a 1-0 lead, a runner on and one out, Garland got a double play ball off the bat of Ian Kinsler, hit right at Joe Crede for an apparent 5-4-3 job.  But Tadahito Iguchi dropped the ball on the exchange, and though he managed to smother the ball for the forceout, it extended the inning.  Brad Wilkerson followed up with a homer, and that was, in effect, the ballgame.

Kinsler made it official with a three-run homer two innings later, his seventh of the year.  I suppose if anybody is going to kill us, I’d prefer it to be the Missouri Tiger – especially considering Sammy Sosa homered in his return to Chicago on a boneheaded 0-2 pitch by Mike MacDougal, exposing Sox fans to the kissy-tappy-hoppy BS once again.

Jim Thome had an impressive night, hitting a solo home run for his third of the year, and adding two hard-earned walks to boot.  The homer, a 410-foot drive over the CF fence, came one pitch after Thome let go of the bat on a swinging strike and hit a fan in the face.

A.J. Pierzynski also had a nice night, hitting two singles, including one where he extended an at-bat five pitches after an early 0-2 count.

No other White Sox showed up, and most of them had no idea what to do with Robinson Tejeda’s fastball.  For a guy who only allowed three hits, he wasn’t spotting the ball all that well.  Sox hitters just couldn’t turn on it – Joe Crede whiffed on a 91-m.p.h. fastball down the middle with two on before stranding them -- and they didn’t go the opposite way, either.  Alex Cintron and Rob Mackowiak looked particularly unimpressive trying to pull the ball, especially with Cintron swinging at a ball on 3-1.

Darin Erstad went 0-for-3, extending his slump to 2-for-28.  Unfortunately, one of the outs was hard-hit ball – a liner picked off the first base line by Mark Teixeira. 

Record: 5-7 | Box score | Play-by-play

Week in a Box: April 9-15

Considering all the ugly twists and turns this week took, along with turns in the rotation for Sox killers Johan Santana and C.C. Sabathia, it's almost a miracle the Sox finished 2-3.

Player of the Week:  Juan Uribe.  A four-RBI game against Cleveland helped the Sox to avoid the sweep, and he drove in runs in the final two games against Oakland as well.

Player of the Weak:  Darin Erstad.  He went 2-for-20, one walk, eight strikeouts, hitting second all week long.

Pitcher of the Week:  Mark Buehrle.  Jon Garland pitched seven shutout innings, but Buehrle retired 17 out of his last 18 batters a start after he was nearly knocked out for the season. 

Pitcher of the Weak:  John Danks.  If we can have more weeks where the worst starter only gave up two runs in 5 1/3 innings, we'll be happy campers.

Fireman of the Week:  David Aarsma.  Four innings, one hit, no walks, seven strikeouts.

Gas Can of the Week:  Bobby Jenks.  Added another chapter to the Oakland horror story by blowing a save in the opener.

Super Sub:  Pablo Ozuna.  Went 2-for-4 against C.C. Sabathia, one of the few to show up.

Super Scrub:  Gustavo Molina.  Get well soon, Toby Hall.

Gold Glove of the Week:  Brian Anderson.  Saved a game against Oakland in a rare start.

Hands of Stone:  Joe Crede.  A rare two-error performance led to a Cleveland win, even though the Tribe only collected one hit.