Wednesday, May 26, 2010

126

Remember at the end of last season when Jake Peavy looked like he was worth every penny the White Sox were paying him?  Remember his 3-0 record in three starts?  If you don't, no one will blame you because his results so far in 2010 would make anyone forget the good times.  For the fifth time this year, Peavy gave up six earned runs in a game in what turned out to be a 7-3 loss to Cleveland -- not exactly what earned him the Cy Young, is it?  (Oh, that's right.  It was in the National League and it was a few years back.)

And we all know what happens when the Sox give up more than three runs in a game -- they win only 25% of the time (a 7-21 record).  That's not so unusual since their opponents also win only 25% of the time (6-18) when they allow the Sox to score more than three runs.  What is surprising is how bad the Sox are when they don't score more than three runs.  They've got a record of 1-20, meaning they win 4.76% of the time in that situation.  Their opponents, by contrast, are 5-12 when scoring three or fewer runs, meaning they 29.41% of the time.  In other words, the Sox are more than six times less likely to win their opponents when scoring fewer than four runs in a game. 

Bright spots?  Well, Alexei Ramirez benefited from moving into the second spot in the order, stroking two doubles.  Mark Kotsay matched that feat and went the Missile one better, adding a single to his two two-baggers.  Alex Rios, the only Sox player batting over .300, got a hit.  And that was pretty much it, as the Sox totaled only eight safeties on the night.

The Sox fell back to 7.5 games behind the Twins, whose game with the Yankees was suspended and will be resumed tonight.  The Good Guys have one more this afternoon with the lowly Indians (though it's really not right for Sox fans to refer to other teams as lowly given how our boys are playing) and really could use the win.  Taking two out of every three games from here on out would leave the Sox with  98 wins on the season, which should easily be good enough to make the post-season.  Of course, nothing we've seen so far should have anyone believing that the Sox can play .667 ball for the rest of 2010, but at least we can win this series from the Tribe.  Go Sox!

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