-Defense was the name of the game tonight. The Sox and Twins pitched pretty evenly and hit pretty evenly (although the Sox left more men on-base), but the defense was not equivalent. Minnesota played a much more fundamentally sound defensive game than the White Sox did and that was the deciding factor. You don’t win many games when you make three errors, no matter how bad the team is that you are facing.
– It goes beyond the errors though, as there was some poor decision making in the field. I felt that on Dozier’s bunt in the ninth (it was a beauty, you have to give credit where credit is due), AJ didn’t really have a chance or a good angle to get him. It would have been wise to hang onto that ball, although with him being booed all night and the adrenaline flowing even more than even AJ is probably used to, he threw it. A mistake, but I kind of understand it. However, Konerko needs to realize that with his speed on that play, he really has no shot to get the ball and needs to stay back at the bag. It would have given AJ a better angle at a throw with a taller Konerko there. I know, it’s a lot of moving parts at once and it seems like hindsight, after-the-fact dissection, but I’m assuming it’s a situation these guys worked on over and over again in the Spring. You have to expect execution.
– One more defensive miscue that has me thinking was Dayan Viciedo drifting aimlessly on Revere’s double back in the first inning. It’s a ball he definitely should have caught, but he got stuck sort of watching it and wandering with it instead. To me, it seemed like complacency after putting up a nice four spot in the first inning. If he catches that ball, who knows? Maybe it changes Q’s psyche and we avoid a big inning.
– Speaking of Q, it was a tale of two games for him. If you told me after the third inning that he was going to go seven innings, I would have laughed in your face. However, he did just that and found a way to get it done after it seemed like he had NOTHING and got behind every hitter early on. You wish he would have done a better job early to hold the lead, but he battled with what he had tonight, and for that I applaud him.
Sox killer extraordinaire Denard Span was at it again tonight, making several big plays in center field (photo via wikipedia).
– Offensive shout-outs tonight go to Alejandro De Aza and Alex Rios. De Aza returned to the lineup with a great night, getting four hits and game-tying RBI. Rios had two hits, but hit the ball hard pretty much every time up.
– Speaking of Rios, one of those hits was robbed by Denard Span, as he saved what might have been a two-run home run and was probably the difference in the ballgame (again, defense). We Sox fans know how much of a pain he’s been in our behind, and it leads me to think how dumb Minnesota is for dangling this guy in trade talks with a few years of team control still left in him.
– Lastly, my Target Field experience tonight was extremely underwhelming. It still has two games left to change my mind, but there were a lot of things about it that I did not like. It took us a good while to figure out where the heck to park (although it was an easy out at the end of the game), the food was absolute garbage (I had the worst hot dog of my life, and my father had a steak sandwich that he claims almost broke a few of his teeth haha) and I didn’t find it to be as cool on the outside as people have said.
Francisco Liriano makes his Sox debut tomorrow night against his former team. I’m sure the blood will be pumping pretty fast for him, so let’s hope he can harness that energy and put together a solid outing to even this series up.
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Posted by Luke Stanczyk, GSB! Editor