Thornton was setting up. You don't want Santos facing Granderson, and Teixeira is ever so slightly more likely to end the game against Santos than he is Thornton (not that he couldn't park one against either...18 PA/HR as a lefty, 22 PA/HR as a righty). Some of it may be command, but there is also a reason Thornton didn't give Teixeira anything good to hit. Then Ozzie played it by the book and had Santos face ARod (though it's never mattered to ARod what hand a pitcher throws with), and left him in to get Cano when if he really wanted to micromanage he could have had Sale up and ready to go to face Cano.

 

Santos is the closer.

I don't think Thornton gave Tex nothing to hit on purpose. I think Thornton can't throw a strike to a righty to save his life.

I had no problem with Floyd starting the 9th. He'd only allowed 3 hits up to that point and only 1 that stayed in the stadium. He was in absolute cruise control and the Yankees really had no chance. It was getting a runner on, especially one that can still steal a base in Jeter, that pushed it over the edge. You can't let Jeter steal and then have Granderson up with a runner on 2nd and nobody out - you can't walk him to set up the DP, and he is great against righties.

 

I think Ozzie managed his pen last night perfectly. Hopefully the Sox win by 8 today.

I agree that was as good of pen management as the Sox will get. If ozzie did those moves and one of the line drives fell, you tip your cap to the Yankees and go yell at the relievers some more.

FanGraphs did a little bit last year for (I think) a Chris Young start where he went 6 shutout innings but Will Venable made two ridiculous plays that saved about 3-4 runs total. They suggested, only half seriously, that some sort of WPA needs to be devised to indicate defensive prowess as well.

 

On that note, after Teixeira walked, the Yankees win expectancy was 36.1%. Since Santos retired the next two batters, he was awarded .361 WPA to his total. You may as well count that towards Lillibridge's number for the year because if Quentin or really anybody else is in RF for those two plays, the Sox lose this game.

 

That was extremely clutch defense. Those two plays were pretty much the equivalent of hitting a game winning 2 run homer.

 

That is a great way of looking at it. The arguments this year have centered around the little things costing a game here and there, but in this case, Brent Lillibridge has given the Sox two wins so far this year.

Seeing posts from my friends on facebook about the white sox "no name RF" has been hilarious.

 

Great win, hopefully this builds some nice momentum. Still not scoring runs but can't complain about the starting we've had and Ozzie made all the right decisions last night. Pretty sure Santos is now the closer even if Ozzie doesn't come out and say it.