Interleague plague is over. Fittingly, the White Sox go back to “normal” play by facing a division rival, the Minnesota Twins. Here is what to know as the White Sox embark on a seven-game, seven-day road trip:

2012 Record: White Sox 38-34, 1st in AL Central. Twins 29-42, 5th in AL Central

2012 Season Series Record: 2-1

All-time Series Record: 371-416 (The Sox are 168-224 at Minnesota)

The following pitchers are expected to start in the three games:

Jake Peavy: 6-3, 2.74 ERA, 83K v. Francisco Liriano: 1-7, 5.74 ERA, 65K

Gavin Floyd: 5-7, 5.20 ERA, 76K v. Liam Hendricks: 0-4, 7.39 ERA, 17K

Chris Sale: 8-2, 2.24 ERA, 89K v. Nick Blackburn: 4-4, 7.45 ERA, 26K

Monday and Tuesday’s games begin at 7:10 pm. Wednesday’s game is at 1:10 pm. All times CDT.  » Continue reading “To The North! Series Preview: White Sox @ Twins”

Round three of interleague plague sees the White Sox taking a trip just across the Mississippi to hang out in St. Louis. Two teams with brand new managers this season will square off. So far, the results for each have been interesting. Here is what you might want to know heading into these three games.

2012 Record: White Sox 33-27, 1st in AL Central. Cardinals 31-30, 3rd in NL Central

2012 Interleague play record: White Sox 4-2, Cardinals 1-2

2011 Interleague Record: White Sox 11-7, Cardinals 8-7

2006 Season Series Record: 3-0

All-Time Series Record: 8-10 (The Sox are 2-7 in St. Louis)

The following pitchers are expected to start in the three games:

Jose Quintana: 1-1, 2.05 ERA, 10K v. Adam Wainwright: 5-6, 4.97 ERA, 65K

Jake Peavy: 6-1, 3.05 ERA, 72K v. Lance Lynn: 9-2, 2.66 ERA, 74K

Gavin Floyd: 4-6, 5.38 ERA, 67K v. Jake Westbrook: 4-6, 4.25 ERA, 53K

All three games begin at 7:15 pm CDT. » Continue reading “For The Birds. Series Preview: White Sox @ Cardinals”

The Canadian baseball team is headed to town. I will get to hear “Oh, Canada” before games, which is a GREAT national anthem. And I will probably also hear chants of USA! USA! USA!

Won’t lie. Thanks to 2008, I usually recoil when I hear people do that (for reasons I can explain to you another day) but not because I am anti-american. In any event, the series should be fun and here is what you should know for the next few games:

2012 Season Record: White Sox 31-23, 1st in AL Central. Blue Jays 28-26, 4th in AL East

2012 Season Series: 0-0

2011 Series Record: 3-4

All-Time Series Record: 163-187 (The Sox are 88-84 at home against the Blue Jays)

The following pitchers are expected to pitch in the three games:

Philip Humber: 2-2, 5.37 ERA, 47K v. Ricky Romero: 6-1, 4.04 ERA, 56K

TBD: v. Brandon Morrow: 6-3, 3.28 ERA, 62K

Jake Peavy: 6-1, 3.05 ERA, 68K v. Henderson Alvarez: 3-5, 3.75 ERA, 21K

All three games start at 7:10 pm CDT. » Continue reading “Potential Jingoism. Series Preview: White Sox v Blue Jays”

I’m sure you’re thinking, “What on Earth does that headline even mean, Jen?!” Well, the Sox picked up 13 hits today, and all but one of them were singles.

The White Sox concluded this brief two-game roadtrip by avoiding the sweep. Behind good offense and a good start by Chris Sale, the Sox picked up a win by beating the Angels 6-1.

Sale picked up his fourth win of the season in a very good start. He pitched 5.1 innings, giving up one run, which was an Albert Pujols home run. Sale also only gave up five hits and a walk while striking out seven in those 5.1 innings. Nate Jones came on for 1.2 innings, and he pitched well, giving up only a walk and striking out two. Matt Thornton pitched the eighth, giving up one hit, and Jesse Crain pitched the ninth, giving up just a walk.

The offense did well in backing Sale’s start. AJ Pierzynski had himself a day, going 3-for-5 with two RBI. Alexei Ramirez also had a good day, going 2-for-5, as did Adam Dunn who also picked up two RBI. Paul Konerko had a great day as well, going 2-for-3 with an RBI, a run scored, and two walks.

Alejandro De Aza went 0-for-1, but he walked three times, and Brent Morel went 1-for-2 with two walks. The Sox were pretty good at getting on base this afternoon. The last RBI was Dayan Viciedo’s solo home run in the eighth, his sixth of the year. The Sox could have scored two more runs in the eighth. After Viciedo’s home run, Morel singled to left. He moved to second on a sac bunt by De Aza, and Gordon Beckham came up to bat. On a 1-1 count, Vernon Wells robbed Beckham of a two-run homer.

The Sox come back to Chicago and visit Wrigley Field for their first interleague series of the season. Philip Humber takes the mound tomorrow afternoon and faces Jeff Samardzija. Humber is looking for his second win of the season and hopefully he’ll lower that 5.77 ERA. He’s made one career start at Wrigley, which was a 1-0 win last July.

Happy Sunday. The Sox have the chance today to take the series from the Dirty Beast. I really hope they do after the two crazy games of the past couple of days. A heartbreaking loss on Friday night followed by a ninth inning with way too much drama for my tastes yesterday.

Of course, baseball wouldn’t be the amazing game we love if there weren’t for amazing moments of drama to end games.

Today, I won’t be giving you lineups because it is that time of year for me. Running season is underway and on Sunday’s, I am at times off racing. Some may say crazy to do it but I find it relaxing. » Continue reading “South Side Hits: That Time of Year Edition May 6, 2012″

The Sox will continue their seven-game eight-day homestand tonight by welcoming the first place Indians to town. Did you see the Indians in first place at this point in the season? If not, I suppose it shouldn’t be too shocking considering how everyone else in the division has played. Here is what to know for the next three games:

2012 Records: White Sox 11-11, 2nd in AL Central. Indians 11-9, 1st in AL Central

2012 Series Record: 2-0

2011 Season Series: 11-7

All-Time Record: 1,037-993 (The Sox are 546-464 at home)

The following pitchers are expected to start in the three games:

Chris Sale: 2-1, 3.12 ERA, 26K v. Ubaldo Jimenez: 2-1, 4.50 ERA, 13K

Philip Humber: 1-1, 4.66 ERA, 21K v. Josh Tomlin: 1-2, 5.48 ERA, 16K

John Danks: 2-3, 6.23 ERA, 24K v. Justin Masterson: 0-2, 5.40 ERA, 20K

All games are at 7:10 pm CDT.

» Continue reading “Divisional Foes Square Off. Series Preview: White Sox v Indians”

Wasn’t that so much fun? The White Sox ended up down early, but managed to come back and tie the game up in the fifth inning.

The King then put the White Sox ahead on a solo home run. YAY! At least temporarily. The Red Sox soon enough blew the door open on the game.

In the sixth inning, they loaded the bases and then Darnell McDonald hit a double down the left field line to clear the bases.

Guess the magic fairy dust is no where to be found. Final score of 10-3. For a second, i thought I was watching last night’s game given the score. Sadly, it wasn’t a repeat of an already played game but a new one being written into the record books. » Continue reading “And Then There Was That: White Sox Lose To Red Sox”

Five days after pitching MLB’s 21st perfect game, Philip Humber was a little less than perfect.

OK, he was a lot less than perfect.

According to Elias, Humber’s nine runs allowed are the most given up by a pitcher in his first start after throwing a perfect game. It’s not just THAT he gave up nine runs in five innings, it’s HOW he gave them up. Humber gave up not one, not two, but three home runs. One was a grand slam to Kevin Youkilis, and the other two were a solo shot and a two-run shot to Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Humber did strike out five in his five innings of work, but it was a deficit that the White Sox could not make up. Will Ohman came on in the sixth and pitched two innings, giving up one hit. Zach Stewart came on and pitched two innings, giving up three hits and one run, as the Red Sox beat the White Sox 10-3.

The offense did what they could to close the gap. Paul Konerko doubled in Adam Dunn in the first inning to put our Sox on the board. They tacked on another run in the third when AJ Pierzynski singled to left, batting in Alexei Ramirez. In the fourth, Dayan Viciedo hit his third home run of the season, closing the gap to 7-3 at the time.

Konerko and Viciedo each had two hits, while Pierzynski, Dunn, and Alejandro De Aza each notched one. The bottom of the lineup is NOT hitting well, as Viciedo, Brent Morel and Gordon Beckham are each hitting below .200. Konerko, Pierzynski and Alex Rios are all hitting above .300, and Konerko is leading the charge with a .365 average. Dunn is hitting much better than last season and is currently sitting at a .243 average. He has yet to go without a strikeout, however.

John Danks faces Daniel Bard tomorrow night. Danks has a 2-2 record and a 5.11 ERA. He’s been a bit shaky lately, but he did have a decent performance in Seattle and was enough to get the Sox the sweep.

OK so I couldn’t think of any good alliteration.

The White Sox kept it rolling on their road trip. After a sweep of the Mariners, the Sox headed into Oakland, looking to do the same to the Athletics. And they sure got off on the right foot!

Jake Peavy had himself a game. He’s now 3-0 on the season after pitching a complete game shutout. He only allowed three hits and two walks while striking out five. He dominated the Oakland lineup, allowing his three hits to Jemile Weeks, Coco Crisp, and Yoenis Cespedes, and his two walks to Crisp and Seth Smith.

The offense was there, despite not scoring a ton of runs. Adam Dunn got the scoring started. He hit a home run off A’s starter Bartolo Colon in the fourth inning. Paul Konerko followed that immediately with a home run of his own. The Sox scored two more runs in the top of the ninth for a final score of 4-0.

Alexei Ramirez was the only player who didn’t record a hit. Alex Rios is on fire, going 3-for-5 tonight. Brent Morel and Alejandro De Aza each went 2-for-4, while Dunn, Konerko, AJ Pierzynski, Dayan Viciedo and Gordon Beckham each picked up one hit. Dunn actually went 1-for-3 with two walks. Unfortunately those two outs were both strikeouts, so we have yet to start the K-less game tracking for him.

Gavin Floyd faces Tommy Milone tomorrow night. Floyd is looking to get back on track after a not-so-stellar start against the Orioles. He has yet to pitch more than six innings this season, so here’s hoping he gets on the right track in Oakland.

Also, two reminders. First, if you haven’t put in a guess on when Paul Konerko will hit his 400th home run, go here and take a guess. You could win not one but TWO bobbleheads. It’s free stuff, guys. Who doesn’t want free stuff? You don’t have much time left after Paulie hit number 399 tonight.

Second, I was at Woodfield Mall today, looking for shoes for graduation. I know, that has nothing to do with baseball, but I saw something baseball-related while shoe shopping.

Paul Konerko will be signing autographs at Field of Dreams in Woodfield in one week. On Monday, April 30 from 6:30-8:00pm, you can get an autograph for $79.99. For an additional $5.99, you can get a certificate of authenticity. If you want your autograph personalized, that will cost you an additional $24.99.

You can purchase tickets in the store or call 847-995-9095 to get your tickets.

Finally, in case you missed it on Letterman, here are the Top Ten Thoughts That Went Through Philip Humber’s Mind During His Perfect Game.

10. “Don’t jinx it by thinking about it, don’t jinx it by thinking about it — I’m thinking about it.”
9. “Thank goodness for my catcher, AJ Pierzanky…Piernoftski…Pierzonski…whatever.”
8. “Go sit in the truck!”
7. “Thank goodness I drafted myself for my fantasy team.”
6. “The only thing better than pitching a perfect game is making a perfect meatloaf every time with my new Perfect Meatloaf pan.”
5. “Can Broadway’s ‘End of the Rainbow’ really be like seeing Judy Garland in person?”
4. “Grab some pine, ducklips!”
3. “I see the Red Sox are up 9-0 on the Yanks — that’s an easy win.”
2. “I wish I could get me one of those dancing horses.”
1. “Humber? How about Humbest!”

It always happens. After a pitcher throw a no-hitter, talk in the very next game is how long will the no-hitting go? If the no-hitter was a perfect game, the additional question asked is when the first baserunner will get on base.

Today, we didn’t have to wait long to see when the Mariners would get a baserunner and a hit. Dustin Ackley, the second hitter of the game for the Mariners got on base thanks to a dropped third strike. Then Ichiro hit a single to right field for the first hit. No one scored  in that inning.

No matter as today’s game ended up as a see-saw back and forth in scoring. The Sox struck first. then the Mariners came right back with runs. That all happened in the third inning. » Continue reading “White Sox Bring The Brooms Today!”