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White Sox Sat May 15 2010
White Sox Win 5-4: If Only The Whole Team Was Like Peavy And Thornton
One thing Sox fans will have to get used to is not bearing the burden of reminding how badly he's doing when Jake Peavy is doing badly. After a disastrous first inning against the Kansas City Royals today where he let in three runs, Peavy cooled down and pitched beautifully. I was very tempted to change the channel. Even a hardcore Sox fan like myself just couldn't bear to see the Sox ruin yet another game for themselves. But in the seventh inning against Royals ace Luke Hochevar, the Sox managed to load the bases so Ramon Castro (don't worry if you haven't heard of him, he's a substitute catcher) was able to start the runs off with a single allowing Mark Kotsay and Alexei Ramirez to score. More runs followed thanks to Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones that allowed Mark Teahen, Castro, and Juan Pierre to pass home plate. I should also note that although neither Alex Rios or Paul Konerko were the source of runs today, Rios was able to score a run in the second thanks to Alexei Ramirez.
Despite all the moaning and bitching you may have heard from a nearby Sox fan watching the game the team displayed some serious improvement. Mark Kotsay, Juan Pierre, Alexei Ramirez, and Ramon Castro aren't useless. The jury is still out on Mark Teahen and Gordon Beckham.
In terms of pitching, Jake Peavy almost pitched nine innings, finally relenting the mound to Matt Thornton, berating himself all the way to the dugout. Even though I was watching the game at home, I could make out the cursewords Peavy was sprawing on himself. I think Sox fans would like to see this more among the team this year. Far too many seem a little too nonchalant about their performance. Not Peavy though. Unless he pitches a perfect game he #$#@$#@ sucks.
The Sox still have a closer problem. It was a little unclear who was going to relieve Peavy, Bobby Jenks, Matt Thornton, and Sergio Santos were all warming up. If Jenks had come in, the Royals surely would have won the game. Mercifully, Ozzie looked elsewhere in the bullpen. What's more frightening than the fact that Ozzie and Pitching Coach Don Cooper continuing to take Jenks seriously is that Matt almost left the game (one pitch away from finishing it) when his left elbow started to hurt. Just this team's luck but Thornton was able to stay in and finish the game, tying the three game series. An elbow injury explains why Ozzie has been conservative with Thornton's playing time lately. Hopefully this is just a blip for the White Sox's best reliever.
Tomorrow is the third game of the Royals series but this White Sox writer probably won't be able to see it while I'm traveling to Detroit to visit my girlfriend. We're going to game one of the two game series against Detroit on Monday and Tuesday. It's going to be a tough couple of outings. The best chance for the Sox is Monday's game against pitcher Rick Porcello. Porcello has a 6.08 ERA but any pitcher Detroit has starting is going to be good. Things will only get harder on Tuesday when Detroit's ace Justin Verlander takes the mound. Sure, our ace, John Danks, will also be pitching but it'll take more than a good starting pitching day for the White Sox to win that one. White Sox players and fans will probably be cursing after that game, but won't be because the Sox won after letting in a few runs.
