Thoughts on the game (mostly from the White Sox side):
Pitching: Buerhle is a
machine, an absolute monster. Totally deserved player of the game, as far as I'm concerned. Five hits, pitch after pitch with little down time, even caught an infield fly to end an inning. Solid pitches all night, never looked like he was flagging, said he was ready to go out for a tenth if necessary. He looked like he was ready, ready for the game, ready to throw each pitch, ready to make the plays he needed to make. Awesome!
Fielding: OK. Props to Iguchi for covering second really well throughout (and for much better throws than in game 1), pulling down flies soundly and surely, reading the runners, and executing the double plays when necessary. Uribe also had a great recovery from that ball he didn't exactly grab, but managed to trap with his body, then zing it over to first from his knees. Nice job.
Hitting: Huh? Where were the bats, guys?
Base Running:
Ouch. Painful. Granted, third base coach did give Rowand the go-ahead on the one where he got thrown out at home, but the last couple of games have looked like the guys have lead in their legs, or something.
And it's the combination of hitting/running that's really killin' me. Bases loaded in the 5th, and Dye can't convert? Not even one run! And that's been the tone, even later in a few innings with one runner on, and we can't even advance!
Officiating: F minus. Sucked all around. Not even counting the weirdness in the 9th (I'll get to that in a minute), I think the Sox got screwed on Crede getting tagged out at 2nd base, and then there were a couple of lousy pitch calls on Everett and Konerko later for outs.
Then there was the bottom of the 9th. I'm as happy as anybody that the Sox won, and I want them to win, but that whole thing at the end was lousy, and it was lousy on both sides. Pierzynski capitalized on a really weird moment, and I like to see the players looking out for opportunities. Still, there was too much indecision in the wake of the call, too much confusion that the umps should have put their heads together on and come to a more definitive decision (I know, there was a definitive decision, but it just felt so ambiguous). However, I do think Paul should have tagged A.J., just to be sure. Obviously, Paul felt like it wasn't even an issue, so why make the effort. I can't call on that one, but I think he should have touched him. Of course, A.J. did start to walk off. Anyway, the whole thing seems lousy from every angle.
Nuttiness aside, I didn't have as much fun watching the game. Aside from Buerhle, who came to play, it didn't feel like the rest of the team was, I don't know, on, ready to go, gunning for it, or something. The opening innings felt charged up, but along the way it didn't feel like the momentum was there. However, I know very little about baseball, so I'm sure there's a ton I'm not seeing on this one. And I'm probably just sour about them not being able to drive in even one run (!) with bases loaded.
Guys, it doesn't get easier from here. We need to convert runners on base to runs scored!
Gotta buy more beer tonight. I drank all that I had in the fridge (it wasn't much) on last night's game.
Warrior Poet
