– If you would have told me the White Sox were going to take three out of seven against the Yankees and Rangers, I probably would have taken it. If you would have told me the Sox were going to win five? I would have been pretty ecstatic about that! Well, here we are, with the White Sox taking five out of seven from the two best teams in the American League and SWEEPING the best one. We should all feel pretty good about ourselves right about now.
– Jose Quintana needed a long outing today for two reasons: to get back in his own rhythm and to avoid using an over-worked and young bullpen. He accomplished both of those today, as our new version of Mark Buehrle had another stellar outing. In my opinion, this was his most impressive outing of the season. It was against the best offense in the AL on a hot and humid day in a park where the ball carries more than maybe anywhere else when it’s warm. Quintana, again, gave us everything we could ask for. What a find by Kenny Williams.
– As Hawk says about Addison Reed: “He’s got that look!” Reed’s been fantastic ever since being moved to closer, and he’s continuing to show extreme poise for a young pitcher. In fact, Quintana, Reed and Nate Jones: all three of those guys have been extremely poised on the mound not only for young pitchers, but for veterans. We’ve heard a lot that the Sox have no young talent in the system. They obviously didn’t pay much attention to the demeanors of these three guys, because they certainly have that on lock.
– The offense wasn’t great today, but they hit timely and were able to claw their way to a win against a very good lefty in Matt Harrison. Kevin Youkilis, again, was the star of the game, hitting the go-ahead home run. With Will Middlebrooks possibly headed to the DL, Boston is probably wishing they could rewind to a few weeks back.
– What’s really encouraging and not being looked at all too much right now is the Sox are starting to win at home. They’ve been a good road team the past three of four seasons, but haven’t played as well at The Cell as they’d like. Now, they are starting to win there.
Toronto comes to town next, and they’ve been a pest to the Sox the past few seasons. The Blue Jays also plan to trot out three lefties in that series, one of them being Ricky Romero, who’s basically owned the Sox in his career. It will be interesting to see what Robin does with the lineup given it will be four straight games against left-handed pitching.
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Posted by GSB! Editor Luke Stanczyk
