161

Not to sound like a broken record, but we warned you in our Preseason Preview that John Danks was likely to get less run support than he did last year, since he'd be up against the third man in the rotation instead of Number 5 in the pecking order. Even we didn't foresee the anemic offense that the White Sox have demonstrated the last two games. Thursday, the Sox managed only one run (courtesy of Jermaine Dye) on only four hits.

Danks pitched well (three hits and no runs in six innings), as did the Matt Thornton (no hits, no runs in .2 innings), and Octavio Dotel (struck out the side again!). Bobby Jenks, however, did not. Ozzie brought Jenks into the game in a non-save situation, and Bobby gave up a two-run dinger to Coco Crisp that provided the winning runs in a 2-1 game. The Update has been ranting about using Bad Bobby in non-save situations for years, so don't expect us to stop now. It's not that we don't want to see our best reliever out there preserving a tie (and the Sox did score in the bottom of the ninth so maybe it would have been a win but for the homer). It's just that Jenks doesn't seem to pitch well when he can't get the save. It'll take some digging to get the stats, but we're betting that there's a statistically significant difference between "save Bobby" and "non-save Bobby." How about one you readers checking that out and posting a comment on the subject? Les Reiter, you're retired. Check this out and report back to us.

With the loss, the Magic Number remains at 161 and the Sox drop into third, a game behind the Royals and a half-game behind the Twins. The Twinkies invade the Cell for a weekend series, minus Joe Mauer, but plus Joe Crede. The former Sox third baseman is off to a slow start with Minnesota. He's 2 for 12 with no homers or RBIs. Of course, those stats look pretty good compared to erstwhile leadoff man Dewayne Wise (now batting eighth and replaced at the top of the order by Chris Getz, who himself went 0 for 4) and last year's phenom, Alexei Ramirez. Both of those Chisox are 0 for the season. Carlos Quentin barely avoided joining them by getting his first hit of the season. Time to turn it around and start hitting. Fortunately, the Sox face the Number 4 and 5 starters for Minnesota; let's hope our theory of run support holds. Go Sox!