Matt Wieters clubbed a grand slam in the 10th inning to extend the O's lead to 6 runs
This game started with poor play from Baltimore and ended with even worse play from your White Sox. But let’s take our mind off of that sad excuse for baseball and shift to what we did think was positive for the south siders about Monday night’s back-and-forth bout with the Orioles.
Positives: Phil Humber, the White Sox no. 5 pitcher in the rotation looked solid. He battled harder than Sergio Garcia on a Sunday, yet he let up only 1 run in 5.1 innings pitched. He did not have his good stuff; there were a lot of rolling curveballs left in very hittable locations. Luckily for Humber, not many hard hit balls were elevated.
Outside of the starting pitching, the offense was nothing new. Outside of A.J. Pierzynski and Paul Konerko, we did not have any production. I wish this part of the post was longer, but unfortunately I need to save my breath for the negatives.
Humber fanned 7 hitters in just 5 1/3 IP
Negatives: Here, I’m going to focus on the bullpen…obviously. First of all, Jesse Crain yielded a home run in his 2nd straight outing, which is something the veteran needs to avoid. He’s as experienced as anybody in the ‘pen, so I’m not worried about him, but he still needs to get back on track very quickly. While Matt Thornton was good, our other hard throwing lefty was not. Rookie closer Hector Santiago let up 2 runs in his first blown save of his young career. I could say it’s impressive that he did not seem rattled after the loss, but focusing solely on the game at hand, it definitely was a let down for Screwgie after converting his first 3 save opportunities. I don’t doubt that he can bounce back, but things can be thrown into a downward spiral quickly for inexperienced pitchers, so let’s hope he gets back on track sooner rather than later.
Since this is the first poor all-around performance we’ve seen so far, there’s no reason to get too worried. Luckily John Danks will come in as the stopper, the perfect opportunity for him to prove why he is the new no. 1 guy. If he comes in and pitches well, shutting down the O’s offense, Monday’s poor performance WILL be forgotten. If it ends up becoming even a bit of a pattern, us Sox fans will start to get restless…and we all know how rough that can be.
Ventura's White Sox looks to stay above .500 Tuesday night vs. Baltimore
I’ll check back about tonight’s (Tuesday’s) game early on tomorrow (Wednesday), due to the late-ish finish that there will be. So Sox fans, take a deep breath and relax, for Mark Bueh–I mean John Danks is on tap to stop the first losing streak of the season this evening.