Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and mother figures out there. Here at SSHG, we’re glad you are baseball fans and possibly even White Sox Fans. Though, if you’ve abandoned the Sox of late, that is completely understandable because they have not played inspiring of late.

In any event, the Mother’s Day game was a Sunday night affair. Hopefully the mom-types had a chance to do some fun things today before settling in for some Sunday night baseball. Things started off in the game rather hopeful. A crazy comeback to Chris Sale and then a strikeout of Mike Trout. It got me all giddy that the game might be amazing. It was an EASY first half of the inning for Sale. I’m not used to seeing such baseball out of the White Sox. They’ve conditioned me to expect runs to be given up right away. Of course, I had to calm myself because this rare start probably won’t last. Something will go wrong soon to cause this game to be lost. Whether it be lousy defense – as if this team has any other type – or lack of offense.

Early on in the game, Chris Sale was cruising in the game. He was mowing down the Angels hitters and they were not really into trying to work the count. They basically swinging at first pitches and making no contact. It was a thing of beauty to see. Of course, this season the pitching really has not been the problem. The problems with this team have generally been due to poor, uh I mean PUTRID defense and lack of offense. » Continue reading “I Just Expect An L These Days From The White Sox”

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”

sometimes, I’m not sure this team is better than this . . .

At first, things were looking somewhat promising for a White Sox winner. Early on, the game was tied and then the Sox managed to take a 2-1 lead on Hector Gimenez’s first double. Gimenez was actually having a pretty good night. Unfortunately, he got hit by a pitch in the seventh inning and ended up leaving the game.

At that point, the Sox still were up by one on the Indians. And then the eighth inning came along with a new battery of Matt Thornton and Tyler Flowers. And the defense just went to crap. Some hits were given up, a terrible pick-off throw attempt and the next thing you know, the Sox are now trailing 3-2.  » Continue reading “Almost But No As White Sox Lose To Indians”

SoxFest begins tomorrow night and I saw the schedule of events. Missing is a marketing panel which has really turned into a Sox fan festivus. During that session, fans got the opportunity to air grievances with the occasional suggestion for making things better as an experience at the ballpark. One of the questions that was asked last year by a fan got me thinking about rooting for the team versus rooting for the players.

The fan asked Brooks Boyer why he should root for  Alex Rios when Alex couldn’t even be bothered to show up for SoxFest. If you recall, Rios had an absolutely horrible 2011 and fans were rightly upset with his play. Brooks had the perfect response to the fan: you should root for Rios because he wears the White Sox uniform! And that exchange leads me to thinking about what exactly as fans are we rooting for?

A lot of times when we become fans of a team, it might be due to a particular player. Jen, who writes on this site is an example of someone who became a Sox fan because she was following a player. A friend’s brother became a fan because he liked the team colors and I became a fan because I just started watching the team and enjoyed their play compared to other teams I saw. All of us are White Sox fans rooting for that team. Hopefully, the players on the team follow, but sometimes it gets really hard to do. » Continue reading “The Name On The Jersey”

Tonight’s man of the hour!

What happened tonight? Well, the Twins did the Sox a favor and beat the Tigers. Magic (or Tragic depending on your view) number remains at five games. The Sox still are pretty abysmal with RISP scoring, but they did eek out just enough runs tonight to get a win and cut the lead the Tigers have to just one game. Given how this season has gone, it would be so Tigers and Sox to end up tied in a couple of days. » Continue reading “There Is Hope! White Sox 3 Rays 1″

Paul Konerko made his return back to the White Sox after sitting out with a concussion. He immediately made his presence known with a relatively hard hit ball in his first at-bat. Unfortunately, he made an out. He did come back though and hit a home run to the Royals bullpen that tied the game up.

After that, Bacon actually did something with his bat to put the Sox ahead when he hit a single to right field that scored The Cuban Missile. Unfortunately, Billy Butler would tie things up in the bottom of the sixth inning and then the PITAs would go ahead by two runs in the bottom of the seventh. That was due to a double hit by Salvador Perez when the bases were loaded.  » Continue reading “The King Returns In White Sox 4-2 Loss”

The game started off in typical Mr. Consistently Inconsistent fashion. He gives up runs early. He’s throwing a ton of pitches early. Though, mercifully tonight, he decided not to use 42 of them in the first inning. Though, as annoying as Gavin Floyd was in the first couple of innings, he did finally settle down and throw scoreless innings for four innings. » Continue reading “Danks A Million”

Welcome back to meaningful baseball. The All-Star game went to the National League so should the Sox make it to the World Series, they won’t have home field advantage. This might actually be a good thing since the Sox do play much better on the road. They have managed to get their record above .500 at home. But, really I feel better about their play when they are on the road. Hopefully they prove me wrong on the next homestand.

For now, the team is gathering in Kansas City where they will face my fail face PITA Royals. Before play gets back under way, I am sure they also checked out some of the many places to get amazing BBQ in KC. Here is what you need to know for the upcoming series:

2012 Record: White Sox 47-38, 1st in AL Central. Royals 37-47, 4th in AL Central

2012 Series Record: 1-2

All-Time Series Record: 343-304 (The Sox are 149-134 at Kansas City)

The following pitchers are expected to pitch this weekend:

Jose Quintana: 4-1, 2.o4 ERA, 37K v. Bruce Chen: 7-8, 5.22 ERA, 72K

Jake Peavy: 7-5, 2.85 ERA, 108K v. Luke Hochevar: 6-8, 5.14 ERA, 71K

Chris Sale: 10-2, 2.19 ERA, 98K v. Luis Mendoza: 3-5, 4.50 ERA, 44K

Friday’s game begins at 7:10 pm, Saturday’s game begins at 6:10 pm and Sunday’s game is at 1:10 pm. All times CDT.  » Continue reading “BBQ & Baseball. Series Preview: White Sox @ Royals”

Who would have thought the Sox would be involved in a pitching duel today? They were facing a lefty starter in Ricky Romero for the Blue Jays. The Sox haven’t done well against lefties. And Gavin Floyd was starting. While he has been ok of late, you just never know what you will get out of him.

Fortunately, today Mr. Consistently Inconsistent decided to be good today. This even with AJ Pierzynski catching him. Gavin was actually quite good today. Keeping the Blue Jays off base. He even had a 1-2-3 inning in the second inning. With him pitching, you just sort of expect things to not be 1-2-3, but he surprised.

Nothing was happening as far as base runners as Romero was doing a good job himself keeping the Sox off base. There were chances, but the Sox just couldn’t get that elusive big hit to score the run. That is not until fifth inning when Kevin Youkilis launched a two-run home run to center field scoring Alexei Ramirez in the process. » Continue reading “Youk To the Rescue Of Pitching Duel”

After a miserable road trip, the White Sox return home to face the other Chicago team. You would think it would be some guaranteed wins to look forward to, but if you know anything about this team, you know that is not neessarily the case. In any event, here is what to know for the next few days:

2012 Record: White Sox: 3-31, 1st in AL Central. Cubs: 22-44, 6th in NL Central.

2012 Interleague Play Record: White Sox 6-6. Cubs 3-9

2012 Series Record: 3-0

All-Time Series Record: 48-39 (The Sox are 25-17 at home against the Cubs)

The following pitchers are expected to start the three games:

Zach Stewart: 1-1, 5.18 ERA, 15K v. Matt Garza: 2-5, 4.04 ERA, 66K

Jake Peavy: 6-2, 2.91 ERA, 78K v.  Travis Wood: 0-3, 4.58 ERA, 24K

Gavin Floyd: 4-7,. 5.63 ERA, 72K v. Ryan Dempster: 3-3, 2.11 ERA, 66K

All three games begin at 7:10 pm CDT. » Continue reading “Round Two. Series Preview: White Sox V Cubs”