I didn't exactly get my wish with regards to
getting Alexei Ramirez more playing time, but at least we are starting to see some contributions from the reserves.
Brian Anderson is making Safeco Field his home away from home. He launched his first homer of the season (and fourth career road homer, all in Seattle) over the center field fence in
Saturday night's victory over the Mariners, then nearly made another amazing catch. He did experience his first defensive blemish when he overran a single up in the middle when he had a chance of nailing Ichiro Suzuki at home, but he hasn't slipped from his status as the Sox's best defensive outfielder.
He
hasn't lost his candor, either:
"Even when I make outs, I know what I'm doing wrong, instead of looking at [Greg] Walker with a blank look on my face."
Meanwhile, Toby Hall is contributing as well, and it's not all showing up in the box score. His second double of the year raised his slugging percentage above .300 and he scored his first run of the year.
But more encouraging was the play he made to bail out Octavio Dotel. After Juan Uribe couldn't tag Willie Bloomquist thanks to Dotel's bad throw to second, he fired home to Hall, who blocked the plate and was able to place the tag on Ichiro before he could reach back for the plate.
It's
the second time he's blocked the plate successfully in two weeks. If he's not going to put runs on the board (and watching him draggin' that wagon on the basepaths, we shouldn't count on him for that), he has to at least keep runs off it. Between those plays and his 3.18 catcher's ERA (compared to A.J. Pierzynski's 3.78), it looks like he's figuring out ways to achieve the latter.
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Per Joe Cowley, Anderson
will get a third consecutive start today as Jermaine Dye gets a rest, which is terrific news considering
the spectre that looms around the corner:
''Right now, I don't see another choice,'' Guillen said. ''I just talked to Kenny about it, and we kind of reviewed it. Jerry [Owens] still needs some at-bats [in Class AAA Charlotte].
''For us, we don't have a true leadoff guy. Hopefully, we'll start
swinging the bats better, especially at that spot. In that spot, we
need people on base; that's all that we need.''
As long as Guillen trusts Anderson and Anderson keeps giving reasons for Guillen to do so, there isn't a spot on the team for Owens. Middle infield is the trouble area, and that's why it's good to see that Chris Getz got the start at shortstop in the first game of a doubleheader in Charlotte Friday.
Getz doesn't project to stick as a starting second baseman, but if he could learn another infield position, he would definitely have value.
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Note to Jeff Cox: More sliding lessons, please.
The Sox almost saw two starters go down to injury around the bases Saturday night. Joe Crede jammed his knee into second base in an effort to stretch a single into a double, and Carlos Quentin fell going into third base when he couldn't decide if he needed to slide. He found a compromise, jamming one foot into the ground and dragging the other before hitting the dirt.
Both were slow to get up, but both ended up OK. Crede made a flop and throw the next inning, and Quentin followed his stumble with an RBI single. It could've been just as likely both ended up on the DL with some bad luck.
The DL is where Josh Fields is -- he's suffering from tendinitis in his knee, and it's possible that it's connected to
a bad slide April 30.
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Minor league roundup:- Toledo 5, Charlotte 3 (Game 1, 7 innings)
- Brad Eldred hit two solo homers, giving him 10 on the year. He's slugging a robust .633.
- Royce Huffman hit a solo shot, and Fernando Cortez had the only other hit.
- Rob Bell allowed five runs over five.
- Charlotte 4, Toledo 1 (Game 2, 7 innings)
- Lance Broadway went the distance, allowing three hits, one walk and striking out three. He allowed a solo homer to Mike Hessman, his 254th minor-league shot.
- Dewayne Wise tripled and drove in two.
- Jerry Owens went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, but was caught stealing; Jason Bourgeois had two hits.
- Birmingham 7, West Tenn 2
- Micah Schnurstein and Miguel Negron each drove in two.
- Dave Cook went 1-for-2 with a solo homer and walked twice.
- Clayton Richard allowed two runs on five hits and two walks over six innings. No strikeouts, but 14 groundouts.
- John Torres, Shaun Babula and John Lujan eached pitched a scoreless inning in relief.
- Winston-Salem 4, Salem 3
- John Ely got back on track after a shelling, allowing one run over six innings. No walks, five strikeouts.
- Brandon Allen hit a two-run homer, his fifth. Paulo Orlando hit an RBI triple.
- John Shelby went 1-for-4 with an RBI and two strikeouts.
- Lakewood 6, Kannapolis 1
- Christian Marrero hit an RBI triple, and Ronnie Gaines had the only other hit for Kanny. The Intimidators struck out 12 times.
- Santo Luis pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of Nathan Jones, who was hit hard.