– For a while there, it looked like a White Sox-Twins game from the years 2007-2010. Everyone was just throwing the ball all over the place, and we saw some very sloppy baseball. It was like some kind of circus act out there. Fortunately, the Twins aren’t the Twins of those years, and they cannot capitalize on those opportunities like they used to. This game should not have even been close.
– Jake Peavy didn’t have his stuff tonight, but he battled really hard and pitched well enough to win this game. Sure, Francisco Liriano’s stuff is WAY better than his numbers show, but Peavy has deserved much better run support than what he’s been getting. This offense is just real prone to going cold all at once due to the fact that there are a lot of high strikeout guys in it. That is where Kevin Youkilis is going to help, as he is the type of hitter the Sox don’t really have a lot of: high OBP guys.
– Adam Dunn has had a real rough go of it of late, and it continued tonight with four strikeouts. Now, I’m not one of those over-reactionary fans who thinks we should send Dunn down, but I think maybe a mental break for a day or two would do him some good. I’ve never bought the saying “you don’t break out of a slump by sitting on the bench” because sometimes it’s good to take a day or two off and start anew.
– It’s not only Dunn who could use this, though. De Aza and Paulie have really struggled of late. However, you can’t give three key guys a few days off at the same time. This is where a good manager comes in, as Robin needs to know his players well enough to realize who would benefit the most from resting on which day. Robin hasn’t shown that he likes to sit his regulars often though, so it remains to be seen if this will change or not down the stretch.
– The one positive has been the play of Alexei Ramirez, as he continues to rack up multi-hit games. Again, as long as he stays consistent, the power is going to come.
– A lot of people are probably wondering why Hector Santiago was used in the seventh instead of Matt Thornton. Zach and I differ on some things, but I do know the one thing we both agree on is that we both are fans of Hector. I totally would have used him in the seventh, especially since Thornton has been used a great deal this month. Look, since there are so many options teams have bullpen wise, there is always going to be fans unhappy with the way a manager uses his bullpen. In my opinion, other than the way he’s used Will Ohman (I had to rewind the eighth inning to verify that he actually induced a double play ball tonight), I really don’t have any big issues with Robin’s management of the ‘pen. Heck, everyone aside from Addison Reed is struggling right now, so what can he do?
It’s Gavin Floyd against Liam Hendriks tomorrow. Both pitchers have put up some ugly numbers thus far this season, but we all know that Gavin Floyd has the ability to pitch great as long as he keeps his focus. However, the Twins have always given him a lot of trouble, so who knows if Gavin will be able to build off last start’s success.
