caulfield12

So far, so good. Of course, the games started out like that for Porcello and Peavy the first two nights.

Well, that was UN-WISE. Going on his own or following marching orders from the dugout?

Almost a great play by Ramirez but couldn't complete it. There's danger here, Sheree.

Not exactly an auspicious beginning for Gavin. He's getting torched by LH batters, so Dirks, Fielder, Boesch and Avila will all be looking to do damage.

Absolutely HAVE to get to Scherzer early, before he gets in a rhythm and cranks up his fastball into the high 90's. It will be the same story tmrw night against Verlander.

Gordon Beckham=Brent Lillibridge 2011 At least this week. Strange how managers always tend to want to go with veterans down the stretch, whether they're grizzled retreads or completely inexperienced first-year guys. UNLESS, they just told Hudson...your job is to bunt every single time AT Cabrera. The funny thing is that I've seen probably 30-40 Tigers' games this season and that running in on the bunt and throwing across his body is one of the things he does the best. I've only seen him make 1 or 2 errors. It's usually the routine plays that trip him up. And, of course, his lack of range.

Reinsdorf basically told him they couldn't afford to offer him that kind of contract...that he'd be crazy not to take the money, more or less. PHILADELPHIA -- Ozzie Guillen isn't quite sure how he will feel when he returns to U.S. Cellular Field for the first time next May. But the Marlins' skipper is looking forward to it. Major League Baseball released its schedule for 2013 on Wednesday afternoon, and Guillen's return to Chicago on May 24-26 is arguably Miami's most intriguing Interleague series. Guillen played for the White Sox from his rookie season in 1985 until '97, and he managed them from 2004 until last season, winning a World Series title in '05. Guillen still lives in Chicago and has a lot of friends there. "Going there, how I'm going to feel? I don't know," Guillen said before Wednesday's series finale against the Phillies, an hour after the schedule was released. "It might feel weird. Obviously, I grew up in that ballpark. It's like you go to your old house. I grew up there. I have a lot of great memories there. I have a lot of very bad memories there, everything involved." Guillen will have to wait until the day comes to know how he will respond emotionally. He returned to Chicago to face the Cubs on July 17-19, but that was different. "You never know," he said. "Maybe I don't even care. Maybe I start crying. I don't know. Maybe I'm nervous. ... To me, I have to wait for that day to know exactly how I'm going to feel about it. I did it before as a player. But we'll see." www.mlb.com

Has any team in MLB history ever lost 10 of their last 11 games to their closest pursuer and still won the division? Seems next to impossible this would have ever happened before, and yet it's VERY possible with the Sox/Tigers this season.

Verlander and Scherzer aren't going to hang breaking balls over the plate for Dayan or Gordon to hammer. That said, it will be interesting to see if Johnson and Hudson can actually produce any results.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 07:58 AM) In a game where the offense had two f***ing hits through seven innings, please don't tell me the loss is the fault of the manager or the pitchers. If you take out the 18-9 loss to Minnesota, the offense is averaging 3.67 runs per game in September. And yet all of the last 3 games we've lost, there have been about 5-7 clearly discernible mistakes (mentally/physically) or in the managerial decision-making process, especially in the last 3 innings.

Not about him being bad or awful. Simply the fact that he failed ONCE AGAIN vs. the Tigers, in a "big game" situation. It wasn't exactly "must win" compared to the way the games Wed and/or Thursday will feel in comparison, but it definitely will be seen as one of the many many turning points in the 2nd half of the season when we could have buried the Tigers and let them off the hook and back into it.

72.5% SOX 30.5% Tigers That will change by 20% though, if we lose the next two games in a row...as DET probably does have the schedule advantage down the stretch, as we have to face the red hot A's and don't play the Royals well (5-10).

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 11, 2012 -> 11:43 PM) It would be interesting to see how that's compared when he was with Boston. 5/52 this season against DETROIT, for BOTH Sox teams....so struggling HOWEVER: 2009-2011 14/50, 4 doubles, 5 RBI, .280, 838 OPS 2008 10/29, 4 doubles, 4 homers, 11 RBI, .345, 1.291 OPS 2007 7/19, 2B, 1 homer, 4 RBI's, .368, 942 OPS UNTIL THIS SEASON, 2007-2011 31/89 (.348), 9 doubles, 5 HR, 20 RBI's, BIG TIME OPS 10 years ago, you would have said there was a curse on the Red Sox/White Sox...so what's the cause this year? Just facing the likes of Scherzer and Verlander repeatedly and being overmatched?

Statistically, he's been a top 10-20 pitcher for most of this season in all of the majors. Theoretically, that makes him a #1. All the evidence presented in this thread would tell you another story. MLB RANKS WAR 8th (TIE) WHIP 14th ERA 19th

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 11, 2012 -> 10:31 PM) If he would have gone 7 innings, 2 runs tonight like Fister, no one would have said he pitched poorly. That would be a 2.57 ERA for the game. The problem was extending the bullpen so far out because of the elevated pitch counts.

Winning 6-0 at home, then him and Ohman giving up 7 runs in the top of the 6th, THAT's choking. We still had a GOOD shot to win this game if not for BAD BAD BAD managing once again.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 11, 2012 -> 10:20 PM) Just got home from the game. While Robin did have an awful game with the Liriano/Youk decisions, I would like to add that Leyland had just as bad of a game managing, but he was lucky enough to win. 1. He had Dirks bunt, which took the bat out of Cabrera's hands, which set up the Fielder/Veal matchup. I called it from the second Dirks squared up. 2. Why take out Fister after only 99 pitches ofpur e domination? Tigers won, so no one cares, but he had some head scratchers too. This post in no way absolves Robin of the Youkilis bunting call. Awful, awful, awful, no matter how you look at it. Nice Brian Anderson/Greatest American Hero Bobblehead I know, I know...just looks like him, or David Letterman, not sure.

How many sacrifice bunts has YOUK laid down in his entire career, specifically, the last 5 years?

YOUK is a notorious fastball hitter. You just don't have him bunt there, you don't. Just look at his home splits vs. road splits for further evidence. I'm starting to miss Guillen, lol. And he's starting to miss Twitter and being relevant. I don't actually MISS Ozzie, actually, Just a manager who we could trust to more consistently make sound baseball decisions down the stretch run.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 11, 2012 -> 10:49 PM) The difference between yesterday and today is like having a whore for a girlfriend. When you think your loved, the next day she's with someone else. I don't want to see Jake Peavy anymore. I'm sure the ace will come out facing Cleveland. Too many of the more experienced veterans on this team lay down in big games. I imagine PK will bunt tomorrow or even a Dunn PH sacrifice bunt. The odds were 27% with one run in, first and second, no outs...that we'd score 3 or more runs. Didn't even come close. The failed bunt was THE moment of the game, and then getting behind in the count and K'ing. 3 run homer there and the Tigers are done. Ventura was playing for the tie, or basically, NOT to lose. In that situation, with the Tigers' reeling, you knock them out and don't give them a chance to recover.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 11, 2012 -> 10:46 PM) The hell with that. I'd put Liriano in and make him pitch Can we even be sure after two times on the DL that Gavin can even stay healthy for one game or one week? Or that Sale won't require additional rest after Thursday?

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 11, 2012 -> 10:43 PM) Very serious. It was a great post. Watching A's vs. Angels or Dodgers vs. Dbacks is baseball. It's entertainment, no invested emotional interest. But watching a team coming off a high last night only to be ruined by Big Game Peavy which should be a more winnable game compared to Scherzer and Verlander...pisses most fans off. Could we have the other eye blackened on Peavy's picture please? I said it coming into the series, it's all about Peavy and Sale showing up. The Quintana win was pretty unexpected, and I guess Jake getting beat wasn't...still, you had to hold out SOME hope coming into the game and certainly through the first 4 innings. I also never expected much out of Floyd/Liriano tomorrow. So maybe that means we'll see Scherzer finally look human again (one of the few times in the past 2 months), who knows? It's just a tremendous amount of pressure to put on Sale's shoulders, with his innings count extended already...if there's any game all season where he's going to overexert or strain himself trying to get a little extra on pitches to Cabrera or Fielder, it's going to be Thursday. Chris is something like 9-2 at USCF with a 1.70 ERA or close to it...I'm cautiously optimistic, and the bottom line is you just don't want to see him hurt, especially if he enters the contest with only a 1 game lead in the standings.

One thing's for sure, if Floyd gets rocked early...we go to Axelrod and THEN possibly Humber if it's a COMPLETE ROUT of 6+ runs or more down, but we definitely can't sacrifice 5-6-7 relievers coming into Thursday in a game where Sale might not get past 5 or 6.

RISP/stagnant offense Ventura bullpen decisions Non-big game Peavy Bunting when we should have played for the win or put up someone there who could actually execute a bunt successfully Viciedo struggling against RH, Konerko seeming a shadow of his former self and Dunn out

The whole problem with this game was bunting with Youkilis. You take the bat out of an aggressive fastball hitter's hands and put him on the defensive when we should have been playing for the lead, not the tie, there. Go for the jugular. With all the struggles with RISP over the last two weeks, I'd rather swing away with 3 at-bats by YOUK, Wise and Konerko than play small ball to try to extend the game, because the Tigers still have the overall bullpen advantage. Hit a homer that inning and the entire series and season shifts back to the White Sox. Now it's "uh-oh," Scherzer and Verlander are coming again, we're doomed, etc. If we want to go to the playoffs this season, we're going to need to prove we belong by winning one of these 2. Otherwise, we'll be 1-10 in our last 11 games played against DET. That's beyond pathetic, that's beyond anything we ever managed to do (negatively) against the Twins even.