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They try to hit home runs every at bat. That's all they do. Swing for the fences. By now we are all aware we don't win unless we hit several home runs. It's the philosophy of all our hitters. I know we can't, but I'd love to get a guy like Granderson to go with all the big boppers. f*** Coco Crisp. Don't want him.

I hear where you are coming from, nice second post there. But my opinion is he didn't really look that passionate. He looked kind of quirky or dorky doing it I thought. I guess my anger does stem from the fact it didn't work and he whiffed. I think what he did was wrong. I think you answer back with your ability and not that kind of antic which was counterproductive.

Interesting usage of the word "dislike." Who do I dislike on this team (based on this year)? Off the top of my head I'm coming up with ... Dotel, Swish, Wise, Boone, Javy, MacDougal, Ramirez, Contreras. Not crazy about Paulie, OC, Uribe, Griffey, Toby. Like a lot: Lexi, Crede, Carlos Q, Dye, AJP, Mark B, Floyd, Danks, Like pretty much or are neutral about: Thornton, Thome, Anderson, Linebrink (when healthy), Richard, Broadway. Can't think of any other players right now. So who do you all truly dislike on the team? I came up with eight. Based on my likes/dislikes, this team needed another GOOD reliever and needed yes another good outfielder not named Swisher, Wise or Griffey.

Sox 1844 you are just wrong on this one. He looked like a fool. You answer back with a base hit there. He looked like a complete idiot and then promptly struck out. He was a fool. A total fool. Get a base hit and then bark at the pitcher. I can't believe we're not in 100 percent agreement he was an embarrassment with that episode. Get a fricking base hit. THAT would have been the answer and then bark at him from first base or tell the media after the game WHY you were so fired up to get a hit. Stupid move by OC.

I agree it seemed like Tuesday was our WS. It was a great night, but if it was our WS then at least admit we gave up on the big picture without CQ. Somebody told me to not blame injuries in one thread. Well are we simply admitting with CQ we had a shot and without him merely outlasting the Twinks was our WS?? You can't have it both ways. I truly think we could have and should have won today and agree with the Trib columnist that the Rays do not look like a 97 win team right now. We had them today early but refused to open a massive lead like they would have opened on us had our starter loaded the bases with no outs.

Except for the dumb lead on the Sox fans hating the Cubs you can't argue with Morrissey's take on the Game Two bummer: Missed opportunities piling up, putting White Sox on their heels By Rick Morrissey Chicago Tribune (MCT) ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The way things are going, White Sox fans soon will be able to fall back on their natural pastime: the intense enjoyment of watching the Cubs fall apart. That might seem perverse to outsiders, but outsiders don’t know the depth of emotion involving the two teams in Chicago. And they might not know that the Sox couldn’t get a hit these days if you spotted them a ball, a tee and a few blindfolded fielders. When the opposing pitcher throws 37 pitches in the first inning, when you have bases loaded with no outs in that inning and all you have to show for it is a 2-0 lead and vague feelings of yearning, you know you’re in trouble. The Sox left 12 men on base in a 6-2 playoff loss to the Rays on Friday. Paul Konerko popped out to the second baseman with the bases loaded in the first inning and to the shortstop with two on in the second. Rays starter Scott Kazmir was on pace for something like a million pitches. He hit the leadoff batter, walked the second and gave up a single to the third. No outs, the bases jammed and all the Sox got out of it was a two-run lead and not even a stupid T-shirt. “We could have gotten five or six runs,” catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. There was a very palpable feeling inside Tropicana Field that the missed opportunities were going to come back and bite the Sox in the posterior. This being baseball, there was a statistical basis for that feeling. In the regular season, the Rays won an American League-high 28 games in which they trailed by at least two runs. So you can make that 29, counting playoffs. But coming back against the Sox on Friday was like coming back against the targets at an FBI firing range. The Sox can question the eyesight of home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor, perhaps with good reason, but that doesn’t excuse them for what they did in the eighth inning. Juan Uribe, Brian Anderson and Nick Swisher all struck out looking with their team down 3-2. That’s death by silence. Not a very satisfying way to go. “I remember Rod Carew telling me that if you want to get a hit, you have to swing the bat,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. Rod Carew: baseball savant. Go ahead and feel bad that the Sox were without their best hitter, Carlos Quentin, who has a broken wrist. But know that the Rays played the first two games of this series without their leader in home runs and runs batted in, Carlos Pena, who has a scratched cornea. So now the Sox are down 2-0 in this best-of-five AL Division Series, and it’s going to take a huge effort to turn it around. It doesn’t feel nearly as deep as the dark hole the Cubs find themselves in against the Dodgers, but it’s grim. The Cubs are fighting things like nerves, history and, well, nerves and history. The Sox can’t seem to put together hitting and pitching in the same game. In Game 1, starter Javier Vazquez gave it away. In Game 2, Mark Buehrle pitched well enough to win, but help never arrived. The Sox are having a devil of a time with a Rays team that isn’t overwhelmingly talented. Ninety-seven regular-season victories would seem to denote dominance, but that hasn’t been on display in the first two games of this playoff series. The Rays have been remarkably unremarkable. “Sort of the same thing with us in ’05,” Buehrle said of the Sox’s World Series season. “... They have good pitching and defense, and they have guys who get on base and run. They don’t have many big power guys who hit home runs, but they have guys who know how to win.” The Trop is loud, the way domed ballparks usually are, and the sound of thousands of cowbells ringing makes you feel like you’re at a convention of bad ’70s bands. But that doesn’t explain the Sox problems here. They just haven’t played well. Now John Danks, who was stellar in the division clincher against the Twins earlier in the week, gets a chance to save the day and the season for the Sox. He says he’s riding a huge wave of confidence. After an eight-inning, two-hit effort against Minnesota, he should be. One thing you can say about the Sox that you can’t say about a certain North Side team right now is that they aren’t playing scared. That should count for something Sunday in Game 3. “We’ve had our backs against the wall recently,” Konerko said. “Within the last week, we played three or four games where we knew if we lost, our season was over. That’s about the only positive I can say.” OK, so they know what a must-win game feels like. It sure would have been easier if they had just won a game they didn’t absolutely have to win. But how much fun is that? And Sox fans reply: Not nearly as much fun as an epic Cubs meltdown.

Time to go looking for Ozzie quotes on tonight's masterpiece. Peace.

You don't think Joe Crede will be a clutch hitter again if healthy? I'd rather have Joe Crede at 70 percent than Juan Uribe at 110 percent. THe only good thing of him going to the Twins is he won't be able to increase his speed. He'll still be slow on the basepaths.

With our luck, his back will be fine (ala Magglio recovering from his injury) and he'll have clutch hit after clutch hit vs. us.

Uribe ... he'll probably be the last remnant of 05 when the rest are gone. If he'd have steered that line shot to right into the seats we'd have won Game One. Alas no big hit from swing from the heels Juan.

I didn't but now I do. Still ... Do you want to go against OC 18 times and Crede 18 times?

If we had an outfield of CQ, Torii Hunter and Dye this year with Lexi at ss and Richar at second base would we have won it all?

OC was not the answer this year; Tigers not happy with Renteria either. How bout Javy to the Cubs for Fukodome?

What's the experts' opinion on Lexi at ss. Is he supposed to be a great gold glove type? Or an Alan Bannister? Or something in between? We could be hurting without a veteran ss. What do you guys think will happen at 2b and ss for next season? -- I don't want to play against Cabrera 18 times and definitely not Crede 18 times.

I forgot about the ankle. So case closed on that. Harold Reynolds, who I like, I don't think even mentioned that. He was moaning about the station to station baseball or not moaning but pointing it out. That's a good point about the ankle. 2 runs sucked in the first. At one point I thought we might just get one.

Very weird having Danks back on the mound in a similar elimination game situation. Can we expect him to do the same as before?

You guys are making me smile with your arguing. Funny stuff on a not so funny evening.

I disagree. Today's game was winnable folks. And if we win we're tied 1-1 and the city of Chicago is GOING NUTS over our chances. We'd get homefield vs. Boston. We came out today and had great momentum early. We loaded the bases for godsakes and their pitcher was horribly wild and shaky. I may be FOS but I thought OC shoulda been sent from second on the single to set an aggressive tone for godsakes. (Though Fathom just told me OC had a bad ankle and couldn't score so my bad, there). Be that as it may we get 2 meager runs. Just two. And Kasmir Sweater continued to suck in the second inning. We still had mild control and Lexi makes a dumb dumb throw basically giving the Rays their first run when Mark woulda cruised out of that inning still us up, 2-0. Two runs in the first like somebody said ... not enough ... set tone for a disastrous hitting performance. Why in god's name does Juan fricking Uribe swing so hard??? Just drill the ball to right field instead of making out after out with men on base (nice single late though as he finally got a hit). And Reddy with all due respect how the heck do you still love Swish??? He did get on base the first three times up which is very nice, but I dunno what he was thinking on that at bat where he whiffed and failed to be a hero (again).

What a piss poor 2 games at Tampa Bay. Nice job of wasting 12 hits today, my god. What bugs me is we had the bags full and nobody out in the first and got 2 runs. With some clutch hitting we actually could have put a major dent in the game and with Mark going probably would have won the game. At 1-1 we'd all be excited. Now it's a prayer. Our only hope is we again have that magic at home. Very disappointing loss today. Answer me this: Am I anal or is anybody else mad we didn't score OC from second on the single in the first? I know we got two whole runs, but I think OC chugging in from second might have made us a bit more aggressive in trying to knock out Kasmir early. Am I a moron and should this idea leave my brain immediately? Or was anybody else perturbed by this?

Bless you KW, just find a way to keep us in the hunt for a division title and get us the pieces to make us more competitive outside of the Cell. I'm surprised we're not getting all the calls; you'd think baseball would want Chicago to advance over a small market florida team.

See ya in Chicago, Rays. We are the White Sox, a very very ordinary road team. (Yes I realize it mighta been different with CQ and Crede, yes Crede, who is a clutch hitter who might earn some respect finally considering we cant get a clutch hit to save our lives).

Cause he can't put down a bunt. Hed f*** it up.

Wowsie. Station to station will work if somebody will bring em in with a ding dong!

He won't bunt this time; so maybe Paulie will launch one. This series is soooo winnable. The Rays ain't that good.

Will one of our boppers hit a HR off this turd?