Life In The Cell

Livebloggin’ - Sept 2 - White Sox vs Indians

September 2nd, 2008 Posted in 2008 season, Cleveland Indians, Jeeves, John Danks, John Danks Special, Live blog, Pregame Preview, White Sox

5:43 - The Sox are coming off a pitiful offensive performance. They mustered all of 5 hits and at one point had 20+ batters retired in a row. Granted they were facing Cliff Lee, but still that offensive ineptitude isn’t tolerated that well by this blogger. Tonight, Johnny Danks takes the mound. He was actually supposed to have pitched yesterday, but his start was pushed back a day for unspecified reasons. This is a big start for him after struggling his last time out. In his last start, against the Orioles, he only lasted 4 innings while giving up 4 runs. His biggest problem in that outing was that he couldn’t throw the ball over the plate. Even though he only worked 4 innings, he still threw a lot of pitches (93). He had run off 4 consecutive quality starts and 3 of those 4 were John Danks’ specials (7 or fewer inning, 2 or fewer ER), so hopefully it was a fluke occurence rather than the start of a tired arm trend considering he’s already 21 innings above what he pitched last year.

The Indians send Fausto Carmona to the mound. For the year, he is 7-5 with a 4.50 ERA, but that only paints half the picture. Since missing all of June and most of July, he has a 6.63 ERA in 7 starts. Hopefully Carmona’s struggles of late will counteract the presence of his sinker. As we all know, the Sox primary weapon is the long ball, which they have failed to utilize as of late. They’ve only hit 1 in the past 4 games. If the Sox can manage some homers tonight, they should be in good shape.

6:07 - I always find it funny that the Indians, the team with the most offensive logo in American sports, plays at Progressive Field.

6:10 - I feel like I’ve been watching this game for all of 2 minutes, yet the Sox have already gone down in order to end the top of the 1st. Let’s see if Danks’ rebuttal is just as nice.

6:14 - Everyone that’s part of this community just cheered as Sizemore singled to lead off the bottom of the first. Normaly I would say here comes a stolen base, but Danks actually has the ability to keep runners on.

6:16 - Hard hit ball hit to OC that results in a double play. The only way I can describe how he fielded it, is like when putting loads of topspin when returning a smash in ping pong. Obscure reference, I know, but he back handed the ball in that sort of motion. So far so good for Danks as he ended the inning with a harmless flyball.

6:19 - I’m glad to see that Indians’ fans are no longer booing Thome everytime he comes to the plate. After all, their boos were misguided to begin with.

6:22 - Marte proves why it was a good idea earlier in the year to move Casey Blake to 3B by throwing the ball away on a Paul Konerko infield single.

6:23 - Please note, save for a soul patch, Nick Swisher is clean shaven. By the end of the game, he will have a full beard.

6:27 - Very impressive AB by Alexei. He fouled off a number of pitches, and actually laid off some breaking stuff, before hitting a sharp single. Unfortunately, it was so sharp, that Paulie was just about getting to third as the left fielder picked up the ball. Joe Crede grounds out to end the inning. I actually wrote popped out, due to force of habit.

6:32 - The Sox are good at hooking up opposing players with their first homers of the season. This time, it’s Victor Martinez who hit a two run blast. Danks is leaving things up again, which is not good and is what killed Danks last game.

6:35 - Looks like Johnny wanted to prove me wrong. AJ called for a low changeup; instead, Danks threw it high, striking out Garko.

6:38 - Danks is in trouble. Shoppach got an infield single on a ball Crede kinda booted and then walked the next batter. Time to settle down now. A groundball-DP would be great.

6:42 - A line shot off of a leaping Cabrera’s glove. I’m getting nervous; it’s time to get someone up in the ‘pen.

6:43 - Sizemore ripped it down the line, but the Sox lucked out as it was hit right at Paulie. Who needs range?

6:48 - Everyone, Jerry Owens just grounded out. Please, this man deserves a standing ovation, for if it wasn’t for him pulling his groin, we may have never been witness to the sheer awesomeness that is Carlos Quentin.

6:53 - Well, so far things don’t seem much different than against Cliff Lee. JD strikes out to end the inning after AJ got plunked.

6:57 - Leadoff double by Fransico; doesnt seem like there’s any activity in the pen.

6:59 - My will to liveblog is about as dire as my will to live, but I’ll stick with both as Crede just made a standard Joe crede diving grab.

7:05 - Hooray offensive ineptitude! Let’s make things interesting, I’m calling a White Sox run by the end of the 6th.

7:11 - In the last AB, after Danks missed very high, he hung his head and shook his head after the pitch. Sign he’s tired or sign he was just pissed he blew that pitch?

7:15 - 2 out, 2 run double by Gutierrez. Indians are up 4-0 and it’s officially time to start worrying about Danks.

7:20 -Sorry, had to reboot the computer. Anyway, after falling behind 2-0, Danks induced a line shot to left that Swisher had to lightly leap to catch.

7:22 - Holy Shit! Alexei took a walk!

7:27 - And DJ Carrasco is in the game and got a flyout with an interesting drop down fastball.

7:28 - Danks line against the Orioles, last time out: 7 hits, 4 runs, 4 innings, 3 BB, and 1 K. This game: 8 hits, 4 runs, 4 innings, 2 BB, and 3 K. They say 1 game doesn’t make a trend, hopefully 2 doesn’t in this case.

7:35 - Thome just hit a loooong, long single off the left field wall. Runners on 1st and 3rd, a homer puts the Sox within one. C’moooon boys!

7:39 - Woo! Passed ball. 4-1 Indians, and the DP is eliminated. Well, the standard GB-DP that is.

7:41 - Paulie lines a single to CF. Swisher,at the plate, now represents the tying run.

7:43 - Swisher smokes it right at Sizemore, which allowed Thome to score by tagging up. 4-2 Indians.

7:46 - Alexei has got a little AJ in him. Ball ran inside, hit his bat and Alexei proceeded to put on a great acting performance. It wasn’t say Daniel Day Lewis good, but at least good enough to get him a nomination.

7:46 - Juan Uribe is in the game. PLEASE JUAN DO IT!

7:47 - WOO! Uribe doubles off the wall. 4-3 Indians.

7:49 - Carmona is out and in comes Betancourt.

7:52 - Sox down 1, with two runners on and with momentum (for what it’s worth) and the Sox savior is…Jerry Owens, shit! I’m actually am disappointed he struck out rather than ground out weakly. Oh well, at least the Sox are back in the game. By the way, who was right about the Sox scoring before the end of the sixth? That’s right, me. Don’t worry, I won’t pull a muscle patting myself on the back.

8:06 - Toronto is now leading Minnesota 6-5, which is doubly nice considering they were down 5-1. Time for the Sox to jump ahead.

8:08 - Dreaded leadoff walk by OC.

8:15 - Rafael Perez is in the game, and OC is still on 1st base.

8:17 - Thome gets eaten up by the shift and it’s time for the 7th inning stretch. Sox need to mount another scoring attack soon.

8:25 - Leadoff walk comes around to score on a single. 5-3 Indians with no outs and runners on 1st and 2nd.

8:28 - Octavio Dotel is in the game, looking to limit the damage.

8:31 - Dotel induced a fly out and then what should have been an inning ending DP. Paulie took his sweet ass time squaring around to throw the ball to second. I will say, at least, he didn’t throw it away as he has done many times this year.

8:36 - Brilliant move by the Indians. With the bases loaded, they pinch hit with left handed batter Choo. This forced Ozzie to bring in his lefty who was warming up, Boone Logan. You may ask what is brilliant about that, and all you have to do is look at that unsightly 5.27 ERA.

8:40 - Ball 4, take your base, and a run. That’s why it was a great move, damnit.

8:42 - Now it’s a two run single. That’s why you don’t bring in Booen effing Logan. I must apologize, but I’m too frustrated with this move to continue with the liveblog. I will continue watching (most likely) so if there’s any good stuff or something out of the ordinary occurs, I will write about it, but other than that. Good night y’all!