caulfield12

Crisp made the decision on his own, mostly because he sensed Thornton wasn't paying attention to him. Crisp got no sign from the bench and no guidance from third-base coach Mike Gallego, who saw Crisp take off and had only one thought: "Please be safe." "It was a shock," Gallego said. "Coco's an exciting player, a winning player. He can take a game in his own hands and win it for us." Jackson pinch hit for Ryan Sweeney, giving Crisp a right-handed hitter to potentially shield Pierzynski's view. Crisp had some positive vibes: He tried straight steals of home three times in high school and once in the minor leagues. He made it all four times. This time, Thornton threw a fastball down the middle - an easy pitch for Pierzynski to handle. "I got out there far enough, but my timing was a little off - I hesitated," Crisp said. "I saw (Pierzynski) catch it, and I knew I had to slide to the inside. He barely got me. He saw me coming and lunged out there right away. Good pitch, good play by him. "It's one of those plays where you've got to be safe. You gotta make it. I'd do it again, just without the stutter step." Pierzynski, in his 14th season in the major leagues, couldn't remember another opposing player trying a straight steal of home against him. "Most guys usually just deke; that's the first time I actually had somebody come," Pierzynski said. "I saw him coming and I was like, 'Hurry, Thornton! Just give me the ball!' "I didn't know what to do, so I basically just laid on top of the plate. That was the only thing I could think of to do. ... But it worked out and it was a huge moment in the game. It stopped their momentum and got us a win." Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...L#ixzz1MJArIdpV

I don't know about only 4, but John Danks is definitely not one of them. Another definition would be someone, no matter how the team has been doing, how it's hitting, you just feel at least 85-90% confident they're going to win that game, no matter what happens. Like Contreras in 2005-06 or Loaiza in 2003, Black Jack in the early 90's...sometimes it's about personality or leadership traits. Other times, it's just sheer pitching brillaince. Another example would be that stretch in 2006 when Liriano and Santana just sliced through our division. You knew going into the game the chances were about 5-10% at best of beating them. Or CC Sabathia. The White Sox, overall, have one of the best rotations in baseball, if Peavy is healthy. They also don't have a pitcher who "scares" an opposing team or that you really have to "get up for" to face. There might be a lot of respect for our starters, but we haven't had that ace since Contreras, which is why KW went out and got Peavy in the first place.

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ May 13, 2011 -> 11:46 PM) Major league teams generally don't enforce "accountability" by cutting veteran players. That's not really the way it works. Unless it's Milton Bradley or Carlos Silva.

B-League taketh and giveth away. I guess, in the overall scheme of things, he handed one game to us as well on the road. And we're 2-1 against the Indians. It always comes down to play in interleague and the AL Central internecine warfare down the stretch. Obviously their home record can't stand up, and they're going to have to prove they can win on the road against the big boys. The "hope" in the title...it stems from Peavy and having at least one weapon in Viciedo lurking in the minors. That's at least two bullets we have left. Or perhaps that Ozzie will recognize Pierre's no longer an everyday player. When you have a 44 year old 3B who's played the 14th most games in MLB history, what else do you have? A hope and a prayer.

A lot of it has to do with the durability of Sizemore, too. He was Ozzie's favorite player in baseball not so long ago. How long will the likes of Masterson, Tomlin and Alex White continue to pitch so well? How long can Chris Perez continue to pull his Houdini Act? Of course, looking at us, any fan would question Humber's success....Peavy's durability and what the heck's going on with Gordon Beckham and Matt Thornton.

Sergio "The Silencer" Santos?

If we can just go 10-9 the next 19 games against TEX/CLE/LAD and then survive another 10 game road trip to Texas, Toronto and Boston. That's the big if for now. At that point, we've finally got to beat 2/3 Detroit at home (they have a current eight game winning streak against us) AND sweep the Mariners out of USCF. Doing all that, we'd still be 2 games under .500 but with far and away the most difficult portion of the season out of the way. Then it would mostly be a battle within the AL Central itself to see who survives, like it has been every season since 2005.

QUOTE (scenario @ May 13, 2011 -> 11:45 PM) Nice outing for Lucas Harrell against the Twins AAA team. 6 innings; 1 run on 5 hits; 9K's; 1BB Just imagine how bad they are if you look at the Twins' major league offense and most of these guys ostensibly aren't even good enough to replace the guy's below the Mendoza line up there.

There's your White Sox All-Star representative. Awesome save, way to shut down the A's and not even give them a breath of life.

Santos' slider is almost as devastating as Mariano's cutter. Wow. Can't believe they didn't give him more consideration as the closer coming into ST. He's definitely earned it by now.

RH hitters now 1/26 against Santos. C'mon Alexei, you idiot. That was a ROUTINE play. Let's not f up another game against OAK, please.

Simple. Crisp thought he could make it because Thornton was going out of the wind-up. It did take a great play by AJ to notice him and jump out in front of the plate proactively. That was a gift. The way Thornton's gone, you had the feeling Jackson was going to tie it and send the game to extra innings. Then we'd probably have been using Chris Sale, which wouldn't have been likely to work out, either.

Looks like AJ hurt his hand slamming it down in celebration after the play. He's still shaking it out. CORPSEBALL STRIKES AGAIN. C'mon Sergio, it's all on you. Be the man you've been all season long.

And Conor Jackson's a dead FB hitter, too. Ozzie was really set up there by Geren. Apparently, Rod Carew's rule stealing home was to go any time the opposing pitcher went out of the wind-up. Great play by AJ there to go after him and not let him get to the plate with his hand.

Does that count as a caught stealing for AJ's percentage, LOL??? Don't think so. That has to be the dumbest baserunning since the Carlos Lee days.

Sweeney up here. Conor Jackson to PH. Bring in SANTOS now. WHAT THE HELL CRISP?????????????????????????????????

QUOTE (fathom @ May 13, 2011 -> 11:09 PM) Was Crain's pitch count high? NOPE.

We need to carry 3 catchers and just have a designed Molina brother to elminate the running game in the last 2-3 innings.

What NEW Thornton? 19 hits in 12 IP? Jesus. Yep, 93/94 instead of 96-97. I'm guessing this is indirectly related to him being overused that inning he threw almost 40 pitches.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 13, 2011 -> 11:05 PM) You just don't swing at them, as he doesn't throw them in the zone. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Wuertz. Has he pitched that much this year? I know he was out when we faced them the first time. Around 10 IP I think.

For the record, Crisp has base hits the last two times opposing managers tried to flip him from LH to RH with lefty relievers. Wonder if Ozzie's aware. According to his tweet, he doesn't read scouting reports.

I call this potential loss on Fathom for jinxing us. LOL. Nothing to do with playing in Oakland or Thornton coming in at some point. You just have to watch to see what will happen next this year. Just when you start having faith in the team again, and think you can pick up ground on the Indians again, we flip from 8 GB to possibly 10 GB.

And so goes Beckham's season. He was up to .232 and now he's mired in the 210's. McCarthy has faced the minimum of hitters with the exception of the four run inning. On cruise control now. Thornton for the bottom of the 8th apparently.

At least Rios could have tried....but you don't want that tying run on 2nd. Kouzmanoff actually thought it wasn't quite deep enough. Guess the Humber wild pitch and McCarthy's errant pick-off throw equal themselves out now. Now the Sox offense has to wake up against a tough OAK bullpen.

There's no such thing as an easy win against Oakland for the White Sox. That series at home against the A's was the key turning point of 2011. Great K. He's piling up the strikeouts. Need the DP ball here.