Life In The Cell

Livebloggin’ - Twins vs. Sox - July 29

July 29th, 2008 Posted in 2008 season, Clayton Richard, Jeeves, Live blog, Minnesota Twins, White Sox

7:04 - We’re minutes away from the first pitch. Last night’s game was gawd-awful, so hopefully there’s no carry over. As far as scouting reports on Clayton Richard check here and here. Things to look out for immediately with him is his level of nerves. He normally works ridiculously fast, he makes Buehrle look snail-like, but I think he was working even faster than he normally would have last time due to nerves. Here’s what I wrote about Glen Perkins earlier when previewing the series

His opponent will be Glen Perkins. I’m not quite sure how Perkins is as effective as he is. He has a 4.08 ERA which is pretty good (right around league average) but the rest of his peripherals suck. He has a 1.428 WHIP, which is due to high hit totals. He gives up around 2.2 BB/9 which is pretty good, but he doesn’t strike anyone out. He K’s 4.5 per 9 innings, which is just not very good at all. This is his first year starting in the bigs. He pitched 19 games of relief last year. The interesting thing about Perkins is that he’s pitched steadily pretty much the whole season. He hasn’t had a run of pitching really well or a streak where he’s pitched really poorly; he’s been pretty steady. So with that in mind I’m going to go ahead and say Perkins will throw 6 innings and give up 3 runs.

7:12 - Good AB by OC, reaching first on a single. I’m going to go with Josh Fields as my Pick to Click for what it’s worth. Oh yes, comments always welcome!

7:14 - Woooohooooo! Balk on Perkins. Gotta love balks. It didn’t help as much as last time, when it helped the Sox win a ball game, but let’s see if it helps things out. Cabrera tags up on a flyball to center, fantastic! Runner on third, 1 out.

7:16 - Soft grounder by Quentin, which brings in OC. Things are already looking up after last game, phew.

7:21 - So far so good for Clayton. Induces a weak grounder and does a good job getting over to cover first.

7:24 - Allows a single to Punto, but more importantly, Richard looks a bit more relaxed on the rubber. He’s pitching it more in the range I had expected coming into his first start. So far he’s been more in the 88-90 range, touching 93, rather than in the 90-93 range, touching 95. That single was just erased by a nice GB DP.

7:28 - The dreaded lead-off walk issued to Jim Thome. Now comes sad-sack Paulie. I honestly feel sorry for how badly he’s struggling. C’mon Paulie!

7:30 - Well Paulie popped up to second base; I guess someone has to help fill the pop-up quota now that Crede is gone. Paulie, of course, slammed his bat to the ground after popping up, which he needs to stop doing. Alexei just ripped a ground rule double. Runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out for my pick to click Josh Fields.

7:32 - 3-0 Sox after the Josh Fields’ double cleared the bases.

7:37 - The Sox have given Clayton a nice little lead here. That should help ease any leftover jitters he was feeling.

7:40 - I love watching Brian Anderson in the field. He just glides to the ball and covers so much ground. Him at the bat, er, not so much. 2 pitches 2 outs this inning for Clayton.

7:42 - I’ll be commenting frequently on Richard’s performance since he was half the reason I’m liveblogging, just so you know. He ends the inning with a strike out and looks unbelievably comfortable on the mound right now. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but HOORAY!

7:49 - Today’s game is like night and day compared to last nights. Quentin popped up a ball that should have been caught but falls for a double (no error on the play) instead.

7:56 - The problem with Carlos Gomez (besides the fact he just singled) is that on the year he is hitting .250/.284/.349 but against the Sox he is hitting .320/.358/.560 so Hawk thinks he is the second coming of Yaz and slurps him accordingly. Richard induces another weak grounder, finishing another easy inning.

8:00 - 1 pitch, 1 out for Paulie. At least it wasn’t a pop up.

8:03 - Hawk: Nettles was just a butcher at 3rd base…Josh Fields strikes out… … …DJ: So you didn’t literally mean a butcher out there, right? This is what I have to listen to you. I’m insanely jealous of you Dodger fans out there.

8:10 - I love Alexei for being so damn exciting. On Toby’s single he went to third (through a stop sign). He should be hitting second, rather than BA.

8:15 - Lovely, Punto gets himself picked off, but Paulie botches another snap throw down to second. He induced Morneau to hit a tailormade GB DP, but there was no man to throw out at second.

8:18 - Clayton Richard’s stat line through 4 innings (the same number he pitched in his first start) 3 H, 0 R, 3 K and only 46 pitches. Pretty, damn, good.

8:20 - I make a small dig at Brian Anderson, and homer! 4-0 Sox!

8:22 - Just realized that that was Anderson’s first home run outside of US Cellular Field or Safeco Field. Way to diversify buddy.

8:26 - Anderson made a near amazing catch. At full sprint, he dove and the ball bounced off the heel of his glove. Good effort, BA!

8:28 - Clayton is in his first hot spot of the game. 1st and 2nd no outs. Let’s see how he handles it. So far, he induced a near double play ball. If it was hit a tad harder, then that would have be 2 outs.

8:30 - A hanging change by Clayton and a poor throw by Brian Anderson leads to a 2nd and 3rd again. Thankfully Brendan Harris has his head up his ass and didn’t score.

8:36 - Clayton did a good job to induce the infield fly for out number 2 against Punto. Mauer then absolutely ripped one that luckily deflected off of his foot, preventing a second run from scoring.

8:39 - Damnit to hell! Morneau ripped it just beyond JD’s glove, clearing the bases and giving the Twins a 5-4 lead.

8:45 - I’m fully deflated. The kid had himself a great start on his hands and it disappeared in the blink of an eye. Hopefully the Sox regain the lead so all those thoughts of suicide leave my head.

8:55 - Sorry for the long absence, I was doing some research. On a different site someone said that they should have IBBed Morneau to get to the next hitter. I vociferously denounced that idea, and then someone else brought up that it has happened before. I did some research and found that it has happened 3 times in history. There were different circumstances when those happened. Bill Nicholson was walked in the 8th inning after already hitting 4 homers during a double header. Nap Lajoie was walked in the 9th and was batting .423. Barry Bonds was walked in the 9th because he was, well, Barry Bonds. So in those situations, I must say props for thinking outside the box. In our situation, up 4-2 in the bottom of the 5th against a hitter currently hitting .321 and .307 against lefties, I say no thanks.

9:00 - DJ Carrasco is currently in and he’s retired the first three batters he’s face (there’s now two outs in the 6th)

9:08 - Leadoff single for Cabrera followed by Swish pinch hitting for Brian Anderson.

9:14 - Man after a 13 pitch AB, Swisher flies out to left center. I thought it was going to drop in there. Bother.

9:23 - Gomez is too damn fast. He laid down a mediocre bunt, Carrasco did a good job fielding it, but still reached first.

9:30 - See the problem with liveblogs is I don’t pace myself enough, and when the Sox seem like they are destined to lose I lose by gusto. I’ll try to keep it going though and be more active.

9:31 - Of course as soon as I say that, Mauer singles off of Thornton scoring Gomez from second. 6-4 Twins.

9:37 - WOO! Praise the lord, praise Jesus, praise Allah, praise all! Paulie hit a sharp single to center!!

9:42 - Fields strikes out ending the 8th. One last chance for the Sox, sigh.

9:52 - Octavio Dotel pitched an easy ninth. Here comes Nathan and the Sox last chance.

9:56 - Damnit, OC hit it to a huge gap in left center and I was thinking triple all the way…of course Delmon Young goes and catches it. Sox down to their last out.

9:59 - Most confusing homer ever. Swisher jacked it to the right field upper deck. His bat shatterd and the right fielder didn’t move, so I thought it was just a sky high pop up. And then Quentin grounds out, game over. Twins win 6-5