Last Friday, Jonah Keri of ESPN.com
wrote the following about the Kansas City Royals:
In 2008, the Kansas City Royals have become the unattractive faces
major league players must stare down to break a cold streak. They are
baseball's slump busters.
The theory again held true
Tuesday night, as the Sox:
- Scored more than eight runs for only the second time in 40 games.
- Smashed four homers for the second time all season.
- Went 6-for-14 with runners on after hitting .218 (42-for-193) the previous 13 games.
What's more remarkable is the fact that they did this without contributions from the struggling combination of Paul Konerko, Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye. They nearly gave Ozzie Guillen an aneurysm Sunday by popping up three times with a runner on third and nobody out, and they recreated the magic Tuesday. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Konerko hit a weak flare to right, Thome struck out and Dye popped up to end the threat.
Give Konerko credit -- at least he tried inside-outing the pitch, which is something I can't recall him doing before. But at this point, I think it would be smart to not have Konerko and Thome in the same lineup, at least until you see a strong performance out of one of them.
The flexibility of
Nick Swisher and Alexei Ramirez give Guillen plenty of options if he wishes the shake up the lineup far more than he did Thursday. To the surprise of way too many, Guillen's rant was once again all bark, no bite, and the lineup featured no surprise benchings.
It'd probably be smart to give Juan Uribe some at-bats, as he was hitting acceptably during the weeks leading up to his injury. Despite some dynamite plays on the turf at Tropicana Field, Ramirez showed Tuesday that he's still not the sharpest second baseman. I'd like to see him start in center for a game with Swisher playing first to get Uribe back in the flow.
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While I'm wishing, I'd also like to see Ozzie avoid using Octavio Dotel in low-leverage situations. For
the second time in a week, Dotel came in to throw an inning during a four-run game.
Dotel's track record indicates that he has a limited number of innings in his arm. The offense's track record indicates that there will be plenty of close games in which Dotel's strikeout stuff will be sorely needed.
Meanwhile, Nick Masset has appeared in one game, for two-thirds of an inning, over the last 10 days. Ehren Wassermann has also appeared only once during that stretch, though he did throw 3 1/3 innings. Basically, Ozzie is carrying seven relievers, but he's working with a five-man bullpen, and that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
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Though Guillen says he and Kenny Williams are on the same page, there is some residual damage to the latest tirade --
Greg Walker's feelings:
"I've never quit anything in my life," Walker said tersely. "I'll leave it at that. I have too much respect for Jerry Reinsdorf and what he's done for me. He's a good man and a good friend and he wants me to keep fighting, so I'm going to.
"There's some things I'd like to say, but I'm not going to say them. I'm going to keep my mouth shut and earn my money he's paying me. And if anybody doesn't like it, tough."
Asked directly if his friendship with Guillen had been damaged, Walker replied:
"I'm not going to respond to any of that. I'm kind of digesting what's going on, and I'm doing my job."
On one hand, I can understand Walker's perspective. On the other hand,
he offered to pick up his replacement at the airport more than once last year. The prospect of getting the axe is a lot easier to take when it's purely hypothetical.
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If you're not buying the Paul Konerko = Eeyore equation yet,
read this quote:
''The answer is no one has the answer. Anyone that tells
you they have the answer, run the other way.''
So I'm sticking with this nickname, whether you like it or not.
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Minor league roundup:- Charlotte 9, Pawtucket 3
- Brad Eldred, Chris Getz and Fernando Cortez each went deep.
- Jerry Owens went 3-for-5 with a double, but was caught stealing.
- Jason Bourgeois had two hits; Josh Fields and Danny Richar each went 1-for-4.
- Adam Russell improved to 3-0 with one perfect inning of relief; Tomo Ohka threw a quality start.
- Mississippi 4, Birmingham 3 (13 innings)
- Cole Armstrong went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI.
- Robert Valido went 2-for-5 with a double, RBI and his 11th steal.
- Ryan O'Malley allowed one run on six hits over six innings, walking nobody and striking out four.
- Fernando Hernandez blew the lead, although one of the two runs he allowed over two innings was unearned.
- John Lujan threw three scoreless innings in relief.
- Myrtle Beach 5, Winston-Salem 2
- Aaron Poreda was mediocre: 6 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
- Greg Paiml went 3-for-4; Paulo Orlando, Javier Colina and Anderson Gomes each had two hits.
- John Shelby went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Greensboro 11, Kannapolis 5
- Jim Gallagher went 4-for-5 with a solo homer.
- Christian Marrero went 3-for-5, and has eight hits over his last four games.
- Matt Inyoue hit a two-run homer.
- Hector Santiago threw two scoreless innings in relief, and was the only Kanny pitcher unscored upon.