Hey look! The three-game losing streak is over! Yes, the White Sox managed to pull out a win behind the excellent pitching performance by Chris Sale. Home runs were the deciding factors as the Sox beat the Rangers, 5-2. » Continue reading “Pitching and Home Runs Power White Sox to Win”

My general tears had to wait at least one more night, as AJ Pierzynski was not in the Rangers’ lineup tonight. No, I’m still not over it, but I’m working on it. The Sox traveled to Texas for a three-game series with the Rangers, and it didn’t start well. The Sox lost, 10-6.

Pitching was once again awful. Jose Quintana didn’t have a bad start. He lasted five innings, giving up four runs on eight hits and a walk. He struck out two, but he also allowed back-to-back home runs to Nelson Cruz and Jeff Baker. Matt Lindstrom came on and pitched a third of an inning. He picked up the loss, as he allowed one run on a walk. » Continue reading “Pitching Fails as White Sox Fall to Rangers”

The White Sox will be back at trying to be good at baseball after a much needed day off. As much for them as for fans who have been feeling ill after looking at their play on the recent homestand. The roadtrip begins with a stop in Arlington to face the Texas Rangers. Here is what you need to know for the upcoming three games.

2013 Record: White Sox: 10-14, 5th in AL Central. Rangers: 16-9, 1st in AL West

2012 Series Record: 6-3

All-Time Series Record: 248-230 (The Sox are 107-137 against the Rangers on the road)

The following pitchers are expected to start the three games:

Jose Quintana: 2-0, 2.78 ERA, 20K vs. Yu Darvish: 4-1, 1.65 ERA, 49K

Chris Sale: 2-2, 4.09 ERA, 30K vs. Nick Tepesch: 2-1, 2.53 ERA, 14K

Jake Peavy: 3-1, 3.38 ERA, 39K vs. Justin Grimm: 2-0, 1.59 ERA, 15K

All three games begin at 7:05 pm CDT. » Continue reading “A New Enemy? White Sox At Rangers”

As this game started, there appeared immediately to be some clown shoes defense. A ball tips off the third baseman’s glove and the short stop can’t get to it either. It just felt like things were going to go badly. Fortunately, the Sox restored some faith that things might be okay when they scored a run in the bottom of the first inning. Yes, it was early, but given how things have gone of late, it gave me hope that today would be a good day.

the offensive hero in today’s game

The Rays however, would come back and tie the game up. The Sox would later take the lead again on a two-run home run by The King. The Rays would tie it up again and from there, it became who is pitching for the Sox and the Rays would finally blow things open and win the game by a final of 8-3. Such a sad ending for a gorgeous spring day in Chicago. » Continue reading “Oh Look, Another White Sox Loss”

Lead off home runs are nice to see. Unless your team is not the one who gives it up. Tonight there was a lead off home run. Unfortunately, if you root for the Chicago White Sox, it was not a good thing. The Seattle Mariners’ Franklin Gutierrez led off the game with a ball that initially appeared to be a routine fly to right field. Then the wind got a hold of that ball and out it went for a quick 1-0 lead. The Sox would tie things up in the fourth inning, but then the Sox and Mariners decided it would be a good idea to start trading runs.

yeah, he didn’t help his cause tonight

Jose Quintana started off the evening pitching like the starters had in previous nights. Getting his pitches over and keeping the opposing batters off balance. Then the fifth inning came. And he just fell apart. First, Jason Bay hit a double to left field. Then what should have been an out on Dustin Ackley resulted in Jose committing the first error of the season by someone on the infield. From there, The Mariners decided getting hits was a good idea. All told, they ended up scoring five runs for a 6-1 lead. After they scored the five runs, Jose was off to take a shower for the night. Oh and there were no outs recorded yet.

In came Matt Lindstrom and he did a good job to finally get guys out. He lasted for 2.1 innings before being relieved by Donny Veal. If you thought all hope was lost after that disaster of a fifth inning, all was not as the White Sox came back to score four runs off Mariners starter Blake Beavan. Perhaps that was because he sat in the dugout too long. In any event, the Sox pulled to within one run. » Continue reading “In A Game of Trading Runs, White Sox Come Up Short”

So the brooms weren’t out yesterday. That is okay as the Chicago White Sox did win the series. While there were some things that make you scratch your head (left field defense anyone?) there were also some encouraging things such as the bottom of the order getting on base. This weekend, the Sox will welcome the Seattle for a three-game set. Here is what we can expect this weekend, which is looking promising weather-wise.

2013 Record: White Sox 2-1, 1st in AL Central.  Mariners 2-2, 2nd in AL West

2013 Cactus League Record: White Sox: 14-14 Mariners: 22-11

2012 Record: White Sox: 85-77 Mariners: 75-87

2012 Season Series Record: 8-1

All-Time Series Record: 220-184 (The Sox are 125-80 against the Mariners at home)

The following pitchers are expected to start each game this series: 

Jose Quintana: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0K vs. Blake Beavan: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0K

Dylan Axelrod: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0K vs. Felix Hernandez: 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 8K

Chris Sale: 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 7K vs. Hisashi Iwakuma: 1-0, 1.50 ERA, 7K

Friday’s game is at 7:10 pm, Saturday’s game is at 12:10 pm and Sunday’s game is at 1:10 pm. All times CDT.  » Continue reading “NEXT! Series Preview: White Sox Versus Mariners”

The White Sox continued their winnings ways with a 5-2 win over the Royals. All runs came courtesy of the long ball. Adam Dunn, Alexei Ramirez, and Dayan Viciedo all hit their first home runs of the season, while Tyler Flowers knocked his second.

» Continue reading “Homer Happy White Sox Cruise Past Royals”

ALL HAIL TYLER FLOWERS! Ok, yes, that was a bit over the top, but I had to say it given the amount of “hatred” there is for him because he is NOT AJ PIERZYNSKI. In other, more important news, the Chicago White Sox slayed the PITA Kansas City Royals today by a final of 1-0. Given how Chris Sale and James Shields have each pitched in the past, it is not surprising this game turned out to be a pitcher’s duel.

The game really did have a bit of a playoff atmosphere to it. While I wasn’t at the game, listening to it really did seal in the fact that it is baseball season for me. Chris started out the game in terrific fashion getting the Royals out in order and the crowd was just ecstatic. Alex Rios followed up in the bottom of the inning getting the Sox a hit off Shields. The Royals would come back to get a hit in the top of the second and from there, it was who would get a hit and maybe get beyond first base.

That did finally happen in the bottom of the fifth inning when Tyler Flowers sent a ball to left center field. Clearly, getting the team on the board definitely made fans on twitter ask “AJ who” and curry some favor. Fans were even cheering and standing for him. He did have a chance earlier in the game to do some damage, but alas it didn’t happen. At least it did happen later. » Continue reading “White Sox Sit In First Place After First Game Of Season”

Former GM Ken Williams patiently waits to ask new GM Rick Hahn a question

SoxFest was fun this year. Although last week I was lamenting that there wasn’t a Festivus session, it turned out to be a perfectly good thing. There were plenty of great stories, good looks on the players (despite what some may think, Matt Thornton’s beard really is spectacular!) as well as learning that there is a ton of personality with this group and they enjoy each other.

In past year’s, I have done posts where you can read my timeline from twitter over the days. However, this year I just didn’t have time to do that. You can always go back and look at it and I may get around to compiling it to archive soon before it is no longer available. The best news of me tweeting this year was that I managed to stay out of Twitter Jail. This was surprising to me considering all the good tidbits the players and coaches had to share. » Continue reading “Lessons Learned At SoxFest 2013″

As I’m sure you’re all fully aware, SoxFest is this weekend. Fans from all over will flock downtown to meet some of their favorite players and hear some of them in panels. Before SoxFest starts, the White Sox wanted to give season ticket holders a chance to talk to Tom Paciorek and Robin Ventura during a conference call this afternoon.

As with every other season ticket holder chat, Gene Honda moderated the call, and we started with Wimpy. He’ll be a big part of SoxFest this weekend, as it will partly be a celebrationg of the 1983 “Winning Ugly” team. Wimpy is excited to be there this weekend with a great group of guys and a great coaching staff. He mentioned that while most fans remember the players, some people may have forgotten the personnel of the 1983 team. » Continue reading “Conference Call with Tom Paciorek and Robin Ventura”