Wednesday, April 8, 2009

161-1 Still Possible.

You can't win them all. Zack Grienke made the Sox look bad all night. All night. Granted, it didn't help that the lone time the Sox got to Greinke, they were in their classic "Station-to-Station" style; lead-off singles by Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye poised the Sox for at least 1 run, but a double play courtesy of Paul Konerko and a weak ground out by A.J. Pierzynski ended the threat harmlessly. 2-0 Kansas City. You win some, you lose some.

Still disapointing, however, given Greinke's career stats at the Cell entering tonight's game: 8 G, 6 GS, 0-6, 7.78 ERA, 37 IP, 47 H, 32 R, 32 ER, 11 BB, 30 K, 1.568 WHIP. Tonight's line: W, 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K.

POSITIVES
  • Gavin Floyd entered the year as a chic pick to regress after his breakout year in 2008. Instead, he was on top of his game, even without his best command. He still attacked hitters and featured that dominant breaking ball, striking out 9+ for the third time in his career.
  • Josh Fields made another great play at third base and has made every routine play with ease. It doesn't hurt that he's 2/5 with a walk.
  • The bullpen again looked good; Matt Thornton and Scott Linebrink were both effective, pitching a combined 2 perfect innings, striking out 4. The Sox team ERA is now 2.00, second in the American League only to Texas, believe it or not.
NEGATIVES
  • Dewayne Wise continues to be brutal at the plate, he's now 0-8 with 4 strikeouts. Can we please give someone else a chance to fail at leading off tomorrow?
  • Paul Konerko's also not hitting. Aside from the aforementioned double play, he struck out. In fact the only positive thing he did at the plate tonight was merely flying out in the 7th rather than grounding into another rally-killing double play.
Chicago Tribune recap | Chicago Sun-Times recap | MLB.com Wrap | B-R.com Box Score & PBP

1 comment:

Arthur Fonzarelli said...

if konerko doesn't have his act together early this season, i'm going to be very concerned.

i was a big jerry owens guy in his previous stint, not sure what to think of wise's performance at the plate.

getting shut out in this game is troubling. sometimes a game like this is an anomaly, sometimes its a harbinger. let's hope for the former.