90

This wasn't the kind of streak I had in mind.  Fresh off their loss to the Cubs, the White Sox allowed another terrible team to beat them last night, suffering a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Royals in Kansas City.  Mark Buehrle was less than sharp, although he did contribute a Quality Start -- 6.1 IP, 3 R, 10 H, and 5 BB -- and Sergio Santos pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief. 

Unfortunately, the bats were quiet.  The timely hitting that surfaced during the 11-game winning streak was nowhere to be seen.  The Good Guys managed only four hits: singles by Juan Pierre, Alex Rios, and A.J. Pierzynski and a home run by Carlos Quentin.  Q, who was named the American League Player of the Week for his clutch performance last week, continued his hot streak.  The homer was his fifth in the last seven games, and he was 4 for 4 in terms of getting on base, collecting two walks and a hit by pitch.

That was the tenth time this season that Q has taken one for the team, tieing him for the A.L. lead with Juan Pierre at 10 HBPs.  (Rickie Weeks and Prince Fielder of the Brewers lead the N.L. with 13 and 11 HBPs, respectively.)  Q gets plunked 3.75% of the time he steps to the plate, which is nothing compared to Brett Carroll of the Marlins, who has been hit 7 times this year in only 90 plate appearances, or 7.75% of the times he's in the batter's box.  HBP seems like a stat that should be attributable to the pitcher and somewhat random among batters, but it doesn't work that way.

Of the 778 players with a plate appearance this season, 301 of them have been hit by a pitch at least once.  There've been 164 who've been hit at least twice, 98 hit at least three times, 60 hit at least four times (including Rios and Gordon Beckham), and 31 hit at least five times (including A.J., who was hit last night).  At the top of the list is where you see that the batter may have as much or more to do with it than the pitcher.  How else do you explain 19 batters being hit at least six times, 15 hit at least seven times, 10 at least eight times, and six at least nine times?  The rarefied stats of the aforementioned Weeks, Fielder, Quentin, and Pierre suggest that these guys are hanging over the plate or at least not doing much to get out of the way of pitches.

The Sox went into last night's game 1.5 games behind the first-place Twins, and maintained that distance since Minnesota lost.  Because the Twins lost to the Tigers, however, the Sox are now 2.0 games out of first, behind new leader, Detroit.  Those two play each other again today and the Sox play KC, so there's a good chance to gain on one of the teams ahead of the South Siders.  Go Sox!