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White Sox Thu Jun 17 2010

Sox Sweep, Good Bye Nix, Hello Viciedo and Here Comes Strasburg

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The White Sox continued to prove they're better than terrible Thursday night, as they completed a sweep of one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball. Respect should be paid to the starting rotation. Freddie Garcia, John Danks and Mark Buehrle all earned a win apiece over the last three games. Between the three they only gave up eight earned runs over 21 innings. Since last Friday, the Sox starters have only given up ten runs and struck out 34. It took a pair of terrible teams to do it, but the starting five have finally been pitching the way Sox fans had hoped.

Last night Buehrle went strong for seven and a third innings allowing two runs on six hits and fanning six.  He was ably backed by the offense, who once again took advantage of the Pirates' lack of a Major League starting rotation and miserable fielding. While Pittsburgh did manage to get through nine innings without allowing an error for the first time since the White Sox came to town, they still allowed a lot of hits that more capable teams might have been able to prevent.

Carlos Quentin, formerly a nonentity in the lineup, had another good night. Hitting a double and scoring a run on a sac fly from Gordon Beckham in the 2nd, Quentin had his third RBI in two days as he hit another double in the 3rd that would score Omar Vizquel.  Pierre, Vizquel and Beckham also contributed with a ribbie apiece.

The Pirates threatened to end their losing streak in the 8th. Sergio Santos replaced Buehrle after the Gold Glover gave up a double to Andy LaRouche. A walk, two singles and two RBIs later and it was up to Thorton and Jenks to keep the Pirates at bay. Jenks piled on yet another save and the Sox went on to win 5-4, and the Pirates dropped their 11th in a row.

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The big news of the night was Jayson Nix being designated for assignment, and the promotion of Dayan Viciedo from AAA Charlotte. Nix had only been hitting .163 while filling in for the injured Mark Teahan and aside from his grand slam a few weeks ago, had only one RBI. His fielding was also an issue as he was just bad enough to make fans miss Teahan, another less than Gold Glove man on the hot corner. Nix has five errors at 3rd over 16 games.

A 21 year old Cuban, Viciedo is a top prospect for the Sox. In the minors he hit .290 and drove in 34 runs over 238 at bats. Hopefully all National League teams are as bad as the Cubs and the Pirates so the Sox can ease him into the Majors while they continue interleague play for the next three series.

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And finally, the Sox will be facing off against the young ultra-phenom, Stephen Strasburg Friday night. In case you just discovered the sport of baseball exists five minutes ago, have not been around sports radio for a few weeks as the result of a severe power outage in your area or hate sports in general and are simply reading this while trying to sure your insomnia, Stephen Strasburg is the single greatest baseball pitcher in the history of the universe. We know this because he has played two games in the Majors and has lived to a hearty and wise 21 years old. He single handedly proves that the MLB draft is worth showering with high ratings and is expected to cure many terminal illnesses with his fastball. Strasburg invented a new breaking ball that can travel through time and improve Shakespeare's plays. He can summon lightening using a magic word that only he and his agent are privy to and will be facing off against Gavin Floyd. May god help his enemies.

 
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