White Sox Baseball: These Grinders/Kids Can Play?
To be honest, I can’t remember what the White Sox ad campaign was for this 2010 season. I vaguely remember some black and white commercials but I couldn’t tell if they were a tribute to the passing of Michael Jackson or actually plugging the new Sox roster. No matter the clever slogans, it really didn’t matter for the first two-and-a-half months of the season as the Sox were bad. Hitting? Not good, but we expected little. Relief Pitching? Average, and we wondered how long Matt Thornton could survive. Starting Pitching? That was the truly distressing part, as it had been labeled our strength from the start of the season.
Well as painful as those first months were, those memories are distant ones now. The Sox have been the hottest team in baseball for the last month or so as they made their climb atop the AL Central standings, and they have been playing thoroughly entertaining baseball during that stretch (I’ve blocked the last Twins loss out of my memory entirely. Let’s just say, I was not entertained.)
The bats have come alive with Paul Konerko and Alex Rios being the lone constants throughout the season. In almost every game the Sox have a different bat heating up. And in the past month it seems as if every bat in the lineup has been clicking. Alexei Ramirez (.362 BA in July), Omar Vizquel (.333), Juan Pierre (.305) all have consistently populated the base paths. Carlos Quentin (.305, with 6 of his 11 hits in the month as home runs) when healthy, is terrifying to opposing pitchers. And Andruw Jones, while a shadow of what he once was, still puts together tough at-bats (.350 OBP in July, with a healthy mix of patience and power).
Heck, even Brent Lillibridge has gotten into the act, giving some rest to the Sox infielders and giving Ozzie a good bat off the bench in late innings (.423 BA overall in limited at-bats ).
While all those numbers are encouraging, the best news is that Gordon Beckham appears to have gotten his groove back. He’s hitting .421 for the month of July and it looks like the three games off that Ozzie gave him at the start of July helped him get on track. Since June 22nd, he’s raised his batting average forty-two points and has halved his strikeout rates from previous months. This boost from Ramirez and Beckham means that opposing pitchers have no room to relax in the Sox lineup.
I don’t even know where to start with the Sox pitching staff. From Buehrle and Garcia doing their thing, to Floyd and Danks hitting their strides, it’s been fun to watch. Ozzie seems to have found his guys in the bullpen (I’m still holding out hope that Linebrink finds himself, if not for us, then to be used in a trade). Ignoring the question mark that is Bobby Jenks, the only glaring question is whether Daniel Hudson can fill the 5th starter slot and not deplete the bullpen while he’s at it.
Last night, Hudson proved that he has the stuff to stay in the starting rotation. He started the game with a grotesque 11.25 ERA from his start against the Royals where the Sox bats saved him. And he left the game with 2 outs in the seventh inning with a runner on first, having lowered that ERA to 5.06. He allowed one run early on and then settled down, scattering five hits and striking out six (including all three swinging in the second inning). Those numbers would’ve been even better had he not fallen victim to a tight strike zone. One at-bat, in particular, saw Jack Wilson, the Mariners’ ninth batter, get the full benefit of Hudson’s tiny strike zone. Here’s hoping Hudson can keep it up down the stretch for the Sox.
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