Tuesday, April 26, 2011

146

At least for today, I'm renaming this blog the White Sox Magic Humber Update.  Phil Humber, who'd never lasted beyond the sixth inning in any of his 29 prior major league starts, pitched 7.0 innings of shutout ball to earn the win against the first-place Yankees.  Magic Humber had a no-hitter through 6.1 innings and wound up allowing only one hit (and two walks) on the night, while striking out five. 

Thankfully, the bullpen didn't waste Humber's fine effort.  Chris Sale gave up no runs, hits or walks in his 0.2 innings to earn his first hold.  Sergio Santos notched his first save, pitching 1.1 innings without allowing a run.  Astute readers will remember that I nominated Santos for the closer position just the other day.  I guess Ozzie must be reading The Update again.

Adam Dunn drove in the first run with a grounder to the right of second base that the shifted-over Derek Jeter fielded and tossed to first.  That plated Carlos Quentin, who had doubled and been moved over to third.  The second run was something of a gift.  Alexei Ramirez popped up, but with the infield playing back and Rafael Soriano pointing up at the ball instead of fielding it, the horsehide dropped in for a single.  After Q forced Alexei, Brent Lillibridge pinch ran and stole second, and then scored on a Paul Konerko single.  By the way, there was a good article on Paulie in the New York Times yesterday, talking about what an intelligent hitter he is.

So how many games do the Sox win when scoring just two runs.  Not many.  Since the 1919 season when Baseball-Reference.com's stat tool starts, the Good Guys have come out on top only 494 times when they've scored twice in a game.  That's an average of just over five games per season.  So savor this, and thank Phil Humber.

By the way, our crack research department has turned up some interesting facts about Humber.  He drives a Hummer, snacks on hummus, doesn't sing but hums, favors Humpty Dumpty as a nursery rhyme, likes the rock group Humble Pie, and says that Hubert Humphrey was his favorite politician.  If you know additional tidbits, we humbly request that you add to the list by using The Update's comment feature.  Go Sox!

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