The discussion over this impressive White Sox winner has to start with the pitching, which was superb in the hitter-friendly Ballpark in Arlington on Saturday evening.
Since coming off of the disabled list, Phil Humber had one good start and one bad start coming in Boston and Detroit, respectively. He faced yet another tough task against one of the league’s best offense’s in the Texas Rangers and was able to really shine, giving the team 6+ innings of 1-run ball.
Humber moved to .500 in 2012 with the win on Saturday. Credit: ESPN
He beat All Star Matt Harrison in a game that the Sox seemed to be overmatched matchup-wise. With A.J. Pierzynski, Alejandro De Aza, and Alexei Ramirez all banged up, the bench stepped up big-time.
Tyler Flowers called a very good game, Jordan Danks got a hit and scored a run, and Eduardo Escobar racked up two doubles, one of which brought in the team’s 3rd run. The middle of the order, particularly Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko also did their job, each hitting a 2-run home run to give the team the lead and then stretch it out.
Phil Humber did get himself into trouble in the bottom of the 7th, however, as there were runners on 1st and 3rd with nobody out. Jesse Crain started the impressive showing from the bullpen by leaving those runners stranded right there. Brett Myers continued to dazzle, pitching a perfect 8th, and Matt Thornton let up a run but looked like a competent late-inning pitcher closing the game out in the 9th. There’s 4 more games before the team has an off day, so that was just a move by Robin Ventura to give Addison Reed some rest.
There’s not a whole lot else to rant or rave about from Saturday night’s game, though. It was a good, sound win for the Sox who got back to 10 games over .500 and moved gained ground on both Detroit and Cleveland, as they now stand 2 1/2 games up in the AL Central.
I guess the one question that us fans may want answered after this game is what does the quality start mean for Phil Humber? Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean much. If he stinks it up next weekend against the Angels, he’ll be questioned by many of us yet again. He’s been so inconsistent that you can’t really get too excited over one good game. He has to start stringing them together before we can say he’ll definitely be a staple in the rotation for the stretch run.
But for tonight, it was indeed great to see him take down Matt Harrison and the loaded Rangers’ lineup. It feels like they stole one tonight and now have good momentum heading into tomorrow’s game in which A.J. Pierzynski and Alexei Ramirez are expected to be back.
Escobar has been a nice versatile spark plug, if nothing else in 2012. Credit: Getty Images
They’ll go for the sweep in Texas tomorrow behind Gavin Floyd, who looks to keep the good times rolling against the Rangers’ Scott Feldman, who the Sox beat a couple of weeks ago at U.S. Cellular Field.
A series win in Arlington is always great, but a sweep sure would be phenomenal. Stay tuned on GSB! for more on the trade the Sox just completed, sending Eduardo Escobar and Pedro Hernandez to Minnesota for Francisco Liriano.