The Twins love walking-off against the Sox

On a night the Sox had a chance to gain ground in the A.L. Central race, the Twins scored another gift wrapped walk off win in front of their fans who by now, must expect some stupidity by the White Sox that leads to a walk off in every series.

To be fair, the Sox have played pretty well against the most annoying team in baseball. Coming into tonight the Sox were 7-2 against the Twins and have just swept the bottom feeders last week at The Cell.

But tonight after the Sox spotted Jose Quintana a 4-0 lead after the top of the 1st, the Twins stormed back with four of their own in the bottom half of the 1st and then took a 6-4 lead after the 3rd.

Normally after a starter gives up six runs in 3 innings he's yanked for the long relief man but Robin stuck with his young starter and was rewarded. Quintana was able to get through 7 innings without giving up any more runs and allowed the Sox to get back in the game.They tied it in the 8th off a Alejandro De Aza single but the recent lackluster defense came back to kill the Sox tonight and erased what could've been a nice comeback win.

The third, yes third, error of the game by the Sox tonight cost them in the 9th. Danny Valencia singled to start the Twins 9th and advanced on a sacrifice bunt from Brian Dozier. Unfortunately Valencia was able to advance to third on A.J.'s wild throw to Beckham at first base. The ball went down the line and advanced both runners with nobody out. That was pretty much the game as you knew the Twins would find a way to score. Jamey Carroll hit a sac fly to right which scored the winning run to cap the 7-6 loss.

Twins celebrate another magical walk off against the Sox.

Of the seven runs scored by the Twins tonight only FOUR were earned.

Tomorrow should be interesting as Fransico Liriano (and I never thought I would be saying this) will make his first start in a White Sox uniform against his former team. I'm kind of  cold on the Liriano trade. Not that I wanted to see more of Edwardo Escobar, but Liriano has been loving to give up runs the last few years so adding him to a staff that looks to be tiring a bit could spell disaster. Or perhaps Don Cooper has spotted a flaw with Liriano and we could have just stolen him away from our biggest rivals. Time will tell.

Tomorrow also marks the end of the non-waiver trade deadline. In other words, Christmas for Kenny Williams. He loves this stuff - especially when the Sox are in contention. So far we've been treated to Kevin Youkilis, Brent Myers, and Liriano. I wonder if  Kenny has any more tricks up his sleeve...

After all that, Sox back in 1st

After an all out ass kicking by the Detroit Tigers over the weekend which sent the Sox 1 1/2 games back of the AL Central lead, the Sox now find themselves back in first (tied with the Tigers) after two solid wins against the Twins.

Tonight, the Sox were down 4-2 in the 7th inning but scored 9 times in the 7th and 8th to put an exclamation point on the 11-4 win. Adam Dunn hit a two run home run that tied the game in the 7th and then Dayan Viciedo hit a  two run single with the bases loaded later in the same inning to put the Sox up 6-4.

Dunn continued to be the most productive .208 hitter in baseball the next inning. He doubled knocking home two more runs and then scored on an Alex Rios single. Alexei Ramirez followed up Rios with a two run home run to finish off the assault on the Twins bullpen in the 8th.

Jose Quintana was OK tonight pitching 6 1/3 innings giving up the four runs to the Twins. His biggest problem was Josh Willingham who blasted two home runs off Quintana.

The Sox finish the three game series and homestand tomorrow afternoon. Jake Peavy (7-7, 3.22ERA) will match up against Nick Blackburn (4-5, 7.46ERA).

Hawk line of the game: 7/23/12

"Robin has the best demeanour of a manager I have seen in all or part of seven decades."

I'll hold off judgement until after this series is over

You had to figure Friday night's game against Justin Verlander and the Tigers would be a loss. Verlander is a one-man unstoppable rebel force and the rest of the Tigers are rolling. Combine that with the slumping Sox and you get a 4-2 Tigers win that cuts the Sox 1st place lead to just a 1/2 game.

The Sox had a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the 3rd inning thanks to an Alejandro De Aza two run home run. But that was all the fun the Sox would have tonight.

Jhonny Peralta stood at third base with two outs in the bottom half of the 3rd when Quintin Berry was hit by a pitch setting up runners  on the corners for the heart of the Tigers order. They did not disappoint the Tigers faithful either. Miguel Cabrera singled up the middle to cut the Sox lead to 2-1. Next batter Prince Fielder singled in Berry to tie the game and Delmon Young doubled to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.

Jake Peavy otherwise pitched a decent game giving up another two out run in the 7th when the Sox already looked defeated.

Verlander dominated throwing 122 pitches in 8 innings giving up the two runs and only four hits.

I would hope the Sox can win at least one game this weekend keeping them in first place after this weekend's series. The big blow on this road trip has been the gut punching loss in Boston Thursday night. I hope that doesn't haunt the Sox going forward.

Chris Sale will try and keep out Sox off the slide Saturday afternoon with first place on the line. The game is now a 3:05pm start. 

Mind blowing loss

For the third time in about a month, Jose Quintana was having a great day on the mound pitching his ass off while the Sox only spotted him a 1-0 lead throughout the game. And, for the second time in about a month Robin Ventura decided to take Quintana out to start the 9th inning which led to disaster.

To be fair, Quintana had thrown 103 pitches of shut out ball. The questionable move was bringing in the inept Matt Thornton to start the 9th. 

Thornton gave up a lead off single to Carl Crawford, then the defense let him down by being unable to complete a double play off the bat of Dustin Pedroia. Two batters later Cody Ross (who the Sox made look like a Hall Of Famer this series) hit a three run bomb over the green monster facing Addison Reed for the walk off home run to give the Red Sox a 3-1 win. 

While you can say scoring only one run will pretty much guarantee a loss these days the Sox deserved better tonight as their rookie stud threw another gem at Fenway only to watch Thornton and Reed piss it away. The Sox drop 3 of 4 to the Red Sox while the Tigers creep a little closer in the division race as this weekend's showdown in Detroit looms.

The Sox now have just a 1 1/2 game lead in the A.L. Central as tomorrow you can probably already chalk up to a loss as Justin Verlander (10-5, 2.43ERA) will take the ball for the Tigers  against Jake Peavy (7-6, 3.12ERA).

I'll take it

So the Sox didn't "destroy" the Royals but they still took care of business by winning the weekend series. It's never easy against this team, especially in Kansas City where the Sox usually use one game to find a stupid way to lose.

Kansas City, Minnesota and Oakland are the three cities where I dread the Sox playing. It's generally a struggle and no matter how good the Sox are or how bad these teams are you'll see the Sox foul some big play up or allow a guy batting under .200 to hit his first career home run against them in walk off fashion.

Much like last night's game, Robin Ventura trotted the starter this time being Chris Sale out in the 8th inning with an already high pitch count. Sale looked like he was at the end of his game when he gave up back to back singles to Alcides Escobar and Billy Butler to start the inning. With disaster lurking in a 2-1 lead, Sale stayed in the game and got out of the jam by getting Lorenzo Cain to line out and Yuniesky Betancourt to ground into a double play. Addison Reed atoned for blowing Friday's game by locking down the save for the 2-1 win.

So while the Sox win the Tigers have now moved into 2nd place in the AL Central 3 1/2 games behind our Sox with Cleveland dropping to 4 back with their loss.

The Sox will travel to Boston for a four game series this week. With Gavin Floyd now being sidelined because of a sore elbow, Dylan Alxelrod will start Monday's game against Aaron Cook. Tuesday will mark the return of Phil Humber who will be coming off the DL. Starters for Wednesday and Thursday's games are apparently up in the air. 

Please, destroy the Royals this weekend

Tomorrow the Sox begin the second half of the season and play the first of the final 77 games of the year. Right now they sit in first place by 3 games and could do themselves a solid by taking care of business this weekend against the Kansas City Royals. Playoff teams pound on lesser teams. And if the Sox consider themselves a playoff team, it's time to end their struggles with the Royals as the two teams will face off 15 times between now and the end of the season.

Jose Quintana and all stars Jake Peavy and Chris Sale will start this weekend against Bruce Chen (7-8, 5.22ERA), Luke Hochevar (6-8, 5.14ERA) and Luis Mendoza (3-5, 4.50ERA).

The 10-game road trip will continue next week with four in Boston and a big three game series in Detroit next weekend.

The best of the 1st half

The Sox provided many surprises through the first 85 games of the 2012 season. The biggest surprise of all is probably the fact that they have finished the half in first place by 3 games.

Here are the five games (in no order) that stood out the most in a fun first half.



1. April 7: The first win on the 2012 campaign came with the help of Alex Rios. He blasted a solo home run in the top of the ninth inning with the game tied at three against the Texas Rangers. The home run came off Sox villain, Joe Nathan for the 4-3 win.

2. April 21: Phil Humber threw the 21st perfect game in MLB history and 3rd in White Sox franchise history in the 4-0 win against the Seattle Mariners. Humber struck out nine hitters and only threw 96 pitches.

3. May 30: In what could be one of the oddest games of the year, the Sox won their 8th game in a row over the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-3. Jose Quintana was thrown out in the 4th inning for throwing behind Ben Zobrist in retaliation for A.J. being plunked. Ventura was ejected as well. What will be the most memorable will be Hawk's epic rant on home plate umpire Mark Wegner that put Hawk in hot water with MLB.

4. June 28: Dayan Viciedo hit a go-ahead three run home run in the top of the 9th inning against the New York Yankees to lift the Sox to a 4-3 win that kicked off a four game series in New York.

5. July 4: Newly acquired Kevin Youkilis hit a walk off RBI single in the 10th to give the Sox a 5-4 win over the Texas Rangers. The night after the Sox pounded the Rangers 19-2, the Sox dug themselves an early 3-0 hole in the first inning. The Sox battled back with a four spot in the second and needed extras to finish off the two time AL Champions.

Walk off!

They sure have been fun to watch so far. (Well maybe aside from a crap stretch they had in late April.) It's looking like Jose Quintana will start the first game against the Royals to start the 2nd half. Jake Peavy and Chris Sale are expected to follow.

You knew starting Dylan Axelrod on three days rest would be a disaster, right?

Dylan Axelrod started in place of Chris Sale as the White Sox coaching staff thought it would be nice to give him today off so he could pitch in Tuesday's All-Star Game. Never mind the fact the Sox are in a division race against two teams where every game is going to count down the stretch. Nope, Axelrod was given the ball this afternoon as the Sox were looking to sweep the Blue Jays and this six game homestand.

You could debate the timing of giving Sale rest. Obviously Sale is going to get some starts off in the second half to keep the arm fresh. Sale is going to blow by his career high for innings pitched and he'll be needed if the Sox expect to win the division. But unfortunately right now the Sox don't have much to make a spot start in the rotation with Danks and Humber on the DL. So today looked to be a bullpen day from the start.

Axelrod gave up four runs in the first inning highlighted by two 2-run home runs by Colby Rasmus and Edwin Encarnacion.

In what would be the theme for the afternoon, the Sox fought back. Alex Rios blasted a three run home run in the bottom of the 1st to quickly get the Sox back in the game.

Unfortunately, Axelrod wanted to make this harder on everyone. He surrendered three more runs in the next two innings to put the Sox in a 7-3 hole after three innings. It became 8-3 after four when Brian Omogrosso entered the game in the 4th inning and promptly game up a solo shot to Jeff Mathis.

You would not be wrong to have left the game at this point of you were in attendance or turn off the TV if you were watching at home. But if you didn't, the Sox gave some thrills for the remainder of the game.

The Sox scored four times in the fifth getting the score to 8-7. Alexei Ramirez continued his hot hitting by knocking in two on a triple with one out. But, Dayan Viciedo and Tyler Flowers weren't able to bring the tying run home as they both struck out ending the threat.

The Blue Jays put another four spot on the board in the sixth. It helped their cause because the Sox came back with solo tally's sixth and seventh to get close but eventually ran out of gas and fell 11-9.

Robin Ventura got thrown out of the game after Hector Santiago looked to throw a first pitch strike in the ninth but was called a ball. Robin yelled from the dugout then ran out to yell at home plate umpire D. J. Reyburn for basically have two strike zones throughout the game. It was as animated as Robin as got all year.

So the Sox end the first half of this 2012 season at 47-38, in first place. Three games in front of the Cleveland Indians (44-41) and 3 1/2 games in front of the Detroit Tigers (44-42).

There really isn't much to complain about. This Sox team has exceeded expectations so far and is playing solid baseball.

In other good news, Jake Peavy was named to the All-Star Team today to replace C.J. Wilson. Peavy will join Konerko, Sale, and Dunn in Kansas City this week.

Those four can stay in K.C. after the game Tuesday as the Sox will kick off the 2nd half on Friday in Kansas City.

Sox win 19-2

It was just an all out ass kicking of the Texas Rangers tonight on the south side. The Sox hit 4 home runs and had 21 hits in the 19-2 win. Yes, 19-2.


Kevin Youkilis hit his first home run of his White Sox career in the first. It was a two run shot that preceded  home runs by Adam Dunn and Alex Rios. 

A.J. Pierzynski was a man with a plan tonight as he went 3-5 belting a three run home run in the fifth. The home run was AJ's 15th on the year as he upped his average to .291 on the year. Obviously A.J. is going to try and make a statement this series in front of Rangers' manager Ron Washington for leaving him off the All-Star team.

The Sox on the night were 10-15 with RISP which backed another stellar start by Chris Sale. All Sale did was pitch 7 1/3 innings giving up one run and five hits against the AL's best team.

So the Sox remain 2 games in front of the Indians and now 4 1/2 in front of the Tigers.

Hopefully the Sox didn't blow through all their fireworks tonight. They still have a game tomorrow and a fireworks show after the game for 4th of July festivities. Dylan Axelrod and Scott Feldman will make the start for their respective teams for a 6:10pm start.

Sox remain in 1st despite rough June

After a 13-14 month of June the Sox remained on top of the AL Central by 1 1/2 games over the Cleveland Indians. That's the same division lead the Sox had heading into the month.

So after five consecutive series losses that saw the Sox go 5-10 you could say it could've been worse. Unfortunately where normally the Sox fatten up against NL teams, that wasn't the case this year as they went 6-9 against NL teams in June.

Their pitching staff took some hits as well. John Danks remained on the DL and Phil Humber joined him on June 22. Gavin Floyd had a couple nice starts but still continued to struggle through the month with a 2-2 record and 4.34ERA. Peavy, Sale, and Jose Quintana  remained stellar arms in the rotation while the bullpen had it's ups and downs.

On the positive side, Zach Stewart and Brent Lillibridge were sent to Boston for  Kevin Youkilis  to stabilize third base. The Orlando Hudson experiment wasn't working. Hudson was batting under .200 and was shaky at third.

July shapes up to be a tough month. The Sox will close out the first half at home with three against the AL's- best, Texas Rangers. Then three with the Blue Jays.

Home hasn't been too kind for the Sox. They have been unimpressive at U.S. Cellular Field with a 19-21 record. But, the Sox only play 9 of 25 games on the south side in July. (There is a three game series against the Twins at the end of the month.) Road trips will include stops in Kansas City, Boston, Detroit, Texas and Minnesota.  And don't forget the All Star Break next week. Paul Konerko, Chris Sale, and Adam Dunn will represent the White Sox. Jake Peavy has a chance to join them as he is on the final vote ballot.

It will be interesting to see how the standings shape up on July 31. The Tigers seem like they're coming around and the Indians look like they'll continue to contend.