To be honest, I saw the score of
today's game and just laughed. "Who hit the two solo homers?" I thought to myself. Then I looked at the box score and laughed some more.
The Sox haven't scored a run by way of a non-homer event since the eighth inning of
their game against the Angels April 27, which wouldn't be so bad if they were homering every other inning or so. But that isn't the case, and thusly, their offense should be the subject of hearty, derisive guffawing the whole league round. Chortles abound.
The only guy who shouldn't be cracking up is Ozzie Guillen, but unfortunately -- at least outwardly --
the situation tickles his funny bone, too:
''I had tears in my eyes when I was doing the lineup,'' Guillen joked
before the game against the Mariners. ''I can even hit in this lineup.''
Some aren't nearly as amused, like
Cheat at South Side Sox, who is leading the charge to get Greg Walker fired, or at least make some sort of equivalent, tangible, message-sending shake-up. I'm skeptical as to whether that would actually lead to a solution, but one such occurrence comes to mind: the Indians' firing of Eddie Murray in 2005.
The
Tribe sent Murray packing on June 4 of that year, after
dropping a game to the White Sox to fall to 25-29 early in a season of heightened expectations. As of that date, the Indians were below average in every hitting category despite having a roster with Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez and Grady Sizemore.
Cleveland replaced Murray with
Derek Shelton, and whether or not Shelton did anything different, it sparked quite a turnaround:
- Under Murray: 25-29, .243/.308/.400
- Under Shelton: 68-40, .285/.348/.479
While we can't say whether Shelton was responsible for the bulk of the difference, but we do know that the Indians haven't stopped hitting since.
For every case like this (or the Dodgers' improvement
after firing Jack Clark), I'm sure there are at least a dozen that don't make any sort of discernable difference. Then again, considering this may be the last year of the Sox's championship window of opportunity, Kenny Williams needs to do
something to give this team a swift kick in the ass. Changing hitting coaches wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.
My dream hitting coach?
Edgar Martinez. Now, I'll readily admit I have no clue whether he has interest or the ability to actually instruct, but 1) I loved watching him hit, and 2) a guy who hit 40 doubles at age 38 on creaky legs could probably teach this team something about using the whole field.
Unfortunately, Edgar never played for the White Sox, so I'm guessing he'll have to get in line behind
Mike Caruso on the priority list.
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Minor league round-up:
- Tennessee 4, Birmingham 3 (11 innings)
- Kris Honel improved upon his last couple performances, but only lasted five while giving up three earned runs.
- Chris Getz knocked in all three runs, and had two of the three Barons' hits. Jason Bourgeois had the other.
- Dewon Day could be on the way to straightening out his luck -- two innings, one hit, no runs, four strikeouts.
- Oneli Perez took the loss, surrendering the game-winning run in his second inning of work.
- Winston-Salem 6, Potomac 3
- Aaron Cunningham went 3-for-5, stole his eighth and ninth bases, and committed his second error.
- Micah Schnurstein hit homer No. 7
- Gary Bakker and John Lujan closed out the game with 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Lujan struck out four over two frames.
- Augusta 7, Kannapolis 6 (10 innings)
- No. 6-7-8 hitters Anderson Gomes, Archie Gilbert and Michael Grace all went deep; Gomes and Gilbert went back-to-back.
- Ryan Rote was the hard-luck loser, giving up an unearned run in 3 2/3 innings of relief work.
- Charlotte at Richmond PPD. Brian Anderson continues to get zero at-bats.