Life In The Cell

No Need for (Recent) History to Repeat Itself

The Sox beat the Royals 9-0 last night, much to my pleasure. Things went just about as perfectly as possible. Let me list off the things that please me the most and then I’ll explain why.

-Javy Vazquez pitched 8 dominant, scoreless innings and probably would have gone the distance had the Sox not piled up some runs in the 8th.

-The Sox posted 9 runs both via the home run and without it. This was all done with Carlos Quentin on the bench.

-Russell pitched a perfect inning of relief.

-The Twins lost pushing the Sox back into first place.

First thing’s first. Javy pitched great. He went 8 innings and struck out 10 batters while allowing only 6 baserunners (5 hits, 1 BB). I’m quite confident in saying this was his best start of the season, which could bode well for the White Sox. With Contreras’ injury and the reshuffling of the rotation and ‘pen, Javy is the White Sox’ big x-factor in the playoff race. If this is a springboard to success and a return to his form from ‘07, the Sox will be in good shape (of course, depending on how awful/good the 5th starter platoon will be) moving forward. If he continues to struggles, things may not end so favorably for the Pale Hose. In the start directly following his last 3 quality starts, Javy has an ERA of 7.77. I had this stat (small sample-size and all) just to illustrate, that we’ve been here before. I’ve gotten my hopes up after each of those starts only to see Javy struggle again. Hopefully, this time is different, because this quality start is undoubtedly greater than the others.

The White Sox scored their first 4 runs via the home run, and I will admit even with that 4-0 lead, I was uneasy. I was bracing for Javy to go all Jekyll and Hyde on us. That moment never came, and then the Sox busted the game open by pecking away at the Royals in the 8th. 5 runs came across that inning and not one was thanks to a homer. The hitting sequence went like this doubld, gronud out, double, double, error, sac fly, double, single, and then a pop out to end the inning. It’s always nice to see the team bringing runs without the home run, especially when they’re ripping doubles. It looked like the whole offense was clicking, which the Sox will need if the pitching continues to struggle. One thing of note in that sequence was the single, which was ripped by Chris Getz for his Major League hit in his first big league AB. We’ll have to wait and see if he provides any good help of the bench, but I guess so far so good.

I’m glad that the ‘pen got some good rest as they have put in a good amount of work ever since that 14 game affair. I’m also glad that Russell made it through his inning unscathed. With the injuries of Linebrink and Contreras (coupled with the change in Carrasco’s role) and the suckiness of Boone Logan, Russell’s role has grown. You don’t really want to see a reliever earn higher leverage and greater work due in no part to performance, but that’s the position Russell is in. This inning of work serves as a good confidence boost at the least, even if it was only against the Royals.

Finally, I’m happy that the Sox gained a full game in the standings after the Yankees downed the Twins. Now we just have to hope the Sox don’t let recent history repeat itself. Since the All-Star Break the Sox have already completed two series with the Royals. In both of them, the Sox kicked off the series with a win, before losing the last two games.