69

Mark Buehrle was sailing along against the Kansas City Royals last night when Paul Konerko dropped a ball that would have completed a double play in the eighth inning. The Royals proceeded to score four runs after Buehrle gave up a double down the left-field line to the next batter, Mark Aviles. Octavio Dotel could not put out the fire, allowing Aviles to score on another double, this one by Jose Guillen. Boone Logan then gave up the Royals' only earned run of the game on an inside-the-park home run to Mark Teahan that was aided by relay man Alexei Ramirez's hesitation in throwing to the plate. Just like that, KC turned what had looked like the first win of the season for the Sox when scoring exactly one run into the team's 11th loss in that situation. See "One Is The Loneliest Number," July 9, 2008.

And speaking of past blogs, remember the discussion that Update reader Mike Sehr inspired about run differential (see "Fun With Numbers," July 1, 2008)? Well, our favorite baseball writer, Thomas Boswell of The Washington Post, wrote a column today about that very topic. Bos says that "by midseason, [it's] one of baseball's most dependable barometers" for determining which teams will reach the postseason. He includes the White Sox among "baseball's six best teams," which "all have the kind of decisive run differentials typical of teams that win 93 to 103 games." Boswell refers to the Sox as "especially underappreciated" and calls them "a semi-secret team that seldom gets its due." He declares "Ozzie Guillen's White Sox are back," but "[u]nfortunately, the White Sox, with their deep bullpen, are better suited to a long season than a short playoff, where dominant aces can swing the outcome." While reading the numbers to predict a Red Sox-Cubs World Series (how precious would that be?), Bos says the "White Sox ... are much closer than most fans think." He's obviously not referring to readers of The Update. Here's a link to the entire column, which is worth a read.

One last reference to a prior post: Yesterday, we talked about the 13 ways to score from third base without a hit. Well, we thought of a 14th that may not even have existed back when Tony Kubek and Joe Garagiola were broadcasting -- defensive indifference. When the team in the field doesn't make a play on a runner attempting to steal because advancing one base doesn't really matter (for example, the runner's team is way behind late in the game), the runner doesn't get credit for a stolen base. Rather, it's scored as "defensive indifference." Well, it seems highly unlikely, but a runner attempting to steal home could be allowed to do it without drawing a throw and the official scorer could rule it defensive indifference. It's pretty unlikely to happen, but we're talking theory here.

Finally, two bits of news about charter member of The Update readership, Les Reiter. First, Les is the proud grandfather of a new Sox fan and future Update reader, Eric Thomas Graf. Congrats to Les and Eric's parents, both Sox fans who live up in Brewer country now. Second, Les took it upon himself to email Ozzie Guillen about The Update and suggest that Ozzie start reading this humble publication. That would be great, but we'll settle for Oz spending his time figuring out how to win another World Series. He's got a good start on it. Go Ozzie! Go Sox!