Oh White Sox. You tease and tease all season and then completely screw yourselves over. Tonight was no different as Justin Verlander picked up his 23rd win of the season as the Tigers beat the White Sox 5-0.

Gavin Floyd had another rough outing. He lasted 5.1 innings, giving up four runs on four hits and four walks. He struck out three but gave up the go-ahead home run to Victor Martinez. It happened to be a three-run home run unfortunately. Matt Thornton came on for an inning and gave up another run on a hit. Jason Frasor pitched 1.2 innings and gave up one hit while Addison Reed pitched the ninth and gave up a hit and a walk. The bullpen has been relatively effective recently with only a few blemishes.

The White Sox only picked up seven hits (but so did the Tigers). They also drew four walks (the Tigers had five). So the offenses weren’t too different. Except in their effectiveness. Juan Pierre, AJ Pierzynski, Tyler Flowers, and Brent Morel each picked up one hit. Morel drew two walks while Dayan Viciedo and Alejandro De Aza each drew one. The surprise (at least for me) of the game was Alex Rios who went 3-for-4. He has now brought his average up to a whopping .224.

The Sox hope to end their skid tomorrow night as Dylan Axelrod makes his first Major League start against Brad Penny. Axelrod threw two scoreless innings on September 7. Good luck, kid. Here’s hoping the offense backs you up.

Sometimes, that is what I think the White Sox might be thinking when they go out to play a game. Today was by far the most painful game to watch them lose. Up by eight runs then slowly letting the enemy chip away. The final blow today, two home runs after a 36-minute rain delay. The Tigers would win the game by a final of 9-8.

Yep, new ways to lose games. Today’s unlucky victim: Sergio Santos. Sure, Gavin Floyd slowly started to allow the Tigers back into the game. He only lasted five innings and had given up four runs. While Gavin generally has been dominant against the Tigers, today he worked in and out of trouble before finally yielding to the bullpen.

Tigers starter Brad Penny on the other hand was the bad Brad that people normally know. Luckily for him, he was let off the hook because his teammates Ryan Raburn and Miguel Cabrera got some juicy pitches from Sergio Santos that first tied the game and then won it in walk-off fashion.

Santos entered the game after Chris Sale did away with the last two batters in the eighth inning after a rain delay. At that point, things looked to be in good shape. Santos was brought in to turn Wilson Betemit around. Santos made short order of Betemit and at that point, I mistakenly thought, Santos has this. He’s been so good on the road this season with setting a new record for consecutive appearances without allowing any runs. And he’s the closer who gets the job done without much incident. » Continue reading “Control Destiny? Puh-Leez!”

Start of home not looking so good. On top of losing two of three to the Tigers, Jake Peavy may be headed back to the Disabled list. He left Sunday’s game after pitching four innings. His pitch count wasn’t terribly high, so everyone knew something had to be wrong.

Of course, the fourth inning was where a double play didn’t end up completed and from there, the Tigers got six runs off of Jake. Listening to Hawk, you would think that the missed play caused all the chaos, but there is some blame to be placed around, including with Jake walking guys to load the bases. This is when Ryan Raburn did the damage with a grand slam. Yes, Ryan Raburn took Jake deep.

Later, fans would learn that Jake has a strained right groin. He will be evaluated Monday. Hopefully it will just be a brief stint of rest for him and not a full-blown DL stint. He has been pitching really well and causing a great problem. However, if he does need to go to the DL, then I don’t want to see him again until he won’t be there anymore.

As for the rest of the game there were chances. Like there always are with the White Sox. And just like always, there was a failure to capitalize. No need to recap the lowlights as it’s old to say “well, the guys had men on second and third with no one out and failed to get anyone home.” » Continue reading “Bad News Dirt”

I quit. I will quit asking the baseball gods for anything (at least for the moment). And I will try to stop making observations about interesting tidbits that may be going on in the games. Such as Brad Penny being bad to start the season and any mention of him turning things around. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the great weather in Chicago yesterday. It almost makes up for that awful game you may have witnessed unless you were watching the Chicago Bulls or were absorbed in playoff Hockey. Early game today (12:05 pm start) so before you sit back, relax (or at least try to) and strap it down, here are a few stories you should probably read.

Here is a story that asks many of the questions you might be asking when it comes to the White Sox (and even Cubs if you care about them at all). » Continue reading “South Side Hits”

That is all that can be said. You couldn’t muster a run against a guy who started the day with an 8.44 ERA and had 12, count them TWELVE walks in his previous 21.2 innings. REALLY. You let a guy who was that bad to start the season go deep into the game with a NO-HITTER. Really? I thought your habit of making pitchers look like Cy Young or Satchel Paige was reserved for the ones you haven’t seen before. » Continue reading “Really”