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The White Sox Meat Loafed the Rangers over the weekend, losing the opener, but coming back strong to take the last two. (For those of you who are new to The Update – this means you Howard, Dale, and David Primer, “Meat Loaf” means to take two out of three games, as in the Meat Loaf song, Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad.) Sunday’s game deserves particular mention.
Gavin Floyd gave up only three singles and a walk in seven innings while striking out six, and the bullpen preserved the shutout. But Floyd could have been a whole lot worse, as the Sox pounded out 10 runs on 16 hits, with every starter not named Alexei Ramirez getting at least one, and seven of them having at least two.
My Dad used to complain about games like this – not that there’ve been that many – saying that instead of winning 10-0, the Sox should have saved some of those runs for games when they’ll need them. Ojala! (which if I remember correctly from high school Spanish, means “would that that were so.”) But of course it doesn’t work that way. It did get me thinking about how many hits and runs the Sox average and how they do when they reach those averages.
Through 126 games in 2011 the Sox have accumulated 1094 hits. That works out to about 8.7 hits per game, which we’ll round to 9. When the South Siders collect 9 hits in a game, they’re 7-7. On the season, the Pale Hose have pushed 507 runs across the plate, for an average of 4.02 per game. In games where they score their average 4 runs, the Sox are 8-9, which is as close as you can get to .500 in 17 games. (Ok, theoretically a tie is possible if there were a suspended game, but you get the idea.) Thus, it should be no surprise that the team’s overall record is 63-63.
Well, that record leaves our boys 5.0 games behind the Tigers, who swept the Indians over the weekend. The good news there is that means the Sox trail second-place Cleveland by only a half game. What they need to do is learn how to win at home. The Chisox are a disappointing 29-36 at the Cell, although they’re a surprising 34-27 on the road. Let’s hope they keep up their road success, since the team heads to Anaheim to face the Angels. Go Sox!
posted by Sherm Lollar at 8:37 AM
2 Comments:
I'm interested to see how many games the White Sox have scored less than four runs this year. It feels like they score under 4 much more than over four, but the average is 4 because of games like yesterday.
I remember the 2005 team did not score particularly many runs, but they were CONSISTENT in scoring four runs a game. They didn't blow alot of opponents out, but they were very difficult to shutout completely, and since their pitching was no less than stellar, they were in EVERY ballgame (they held a lead in their first 37 games or something like that).
This team has solid pitching, both bullpen and starting, and on paper, they are capable of scoring runs. They need to learn to consistently get to the three or four run mark, instead of having what feels like half of their games when they get 2,1,or none.
This year, 61 games under 4 runs; 65 games over 3. In 2005, 60 games under 4 runs, 102 over 3.
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