By Mark Gonzales – 6:19 p.m.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen quickly responded to a question why he pulled John Danks after allowing one run in six innings in favor of Octavio Dotel, who gave up home runs to Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez in the seventh that tied the game at 3-3.

“If I thought about it, I would have kept [Danks] there,” Guillen said after Danks threw 85 pitches. “We have our game plan, and the seventh and eighth inning is for Dotel. Thank God, we got to pinch hit for [Danks], and Dotel threw well. He just got hit twice. He just threw the wrong pitch to the wrong guy."

Ya win some ya lose some. Go get them tommorow. This team has flaws, but as Joe Morgan says: there are no perfect teams.

I’m a sox fan from England and I watched the game on MLB.TV, and there are fans from the White Sox all over the place, right in the middle of the Cubs fans!!! This would never happen in English football, they would be lucky to make the local hospital with out a horrible scar. How come you are so tolerant to your biggest rivals??? why do want to lick the arse of your rival? makes no sense to me

if the Sox lose a Contreras vs. Marquis matchup.

and my country is hopeless, but I just laughed tonight when i saw the fan shots, all mixed together with the Cubs and the Sox, and you are supposed to be the big rivals, would never happen in an english soccer game

larry’s earlier post (“aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh..etc.) sure as fuck fits here. Cubs have had the best record in the majors after June 1 – 1st time in 100 fucking years, so it’s meaningful. We lost in the botom of the ninth on the road to this team. We didn’t score every time we could. We didn’t advance runners every time it would’ve been prudent. Jesus Christ, that’s baseball. We lost by a hair to the best record in tha majors on the road (where no one is fucking winning this year – greenies anyone?). Our bulpen failed to hold a lead. OK – there are 3 games in the last 2-3 weeks we’ve lost like that – Tampa on the road (where the Cubs were just swept) in the bottom of the 10th, Detroit on the road via a Miggy Cabrera walk-off (yes, he sucks a lot – almost like BA hitting it), and today.

I am a pessimistic bastard when it comes to the Sox (I took the “under”, remember?) but we are not a .500 team – we, before today, had around the 4th best record in the AL. We are still over .500 by 9 games the last time I looked. So lighten up, already. The heat gets hotter when we play the Cubs, but don’t fucking unravel when we don’t win, especially when it looked like we should’ve.

Let’s grow up here, take it like a man, and play ‘em tough tomorrow. Fer Chrissakes.

My Cub fans friends just called me and said they are playing beer pong… I said no thank you.

period.

one only has to look at the reaction of this board to realize that is a bit more than meaningless, if only a little bit

Used to get that all the time back in school at K College.

People love to pick the 2005 team as some bellweather of what a playoff team should look like. I hate to say it but that team won 99 fucking games on career years from half the guys on the staff. 99 games is pretty fucking hard to win and the Sox got lucky to get such great pitching all year long.

Don’t get me wrong, that team was fucking awesome, but not all good teams look like the 2005 Sox.

This team has problems, notably that the offense has too much suck—but they can still very easily win 90 games and take the division.

I’m not sure why Cheat is so focused on the shitty division—you play teh games that are on the schedule. Perhaps in some crazy KW mindfuck he knew the division was going to suck and so he traded the farm to win 90 games this year and roll the dice in teh playoffs.

or maybe not. But anyways this is fun again after the horror of 07.

EIGHT

if you want a silver lining in all this. they have 32 losses and only EIGHT were by greater than three runs.

and of those eight…three losses were by four runs which one can argue that they were within one-half inning of all but FIVE of their games (btw one loss was by five runs)

so as we know, the pitching is keeping us in games and i imagine the pitching will still be there come september/october. the string of walk-off road losses seems to be just unlucky and as long as they continue to give themselves a chance in ballgames they should be fine

sox just need to win a few more of these close ones to solidfy themselves as dominant team in league. however, its not all doomsday. they are only 4 back in loss column for best record in mlb and 3 in al

Rays just lost to Houston, the losers of 7-8 in a row, at home, 4-3. Yes, 4-3, a familiar score to many of us. I guess that means they suck. Cubs sweep be damned.

Per. Spec. Tive.

Just returned from drinking to recoup and stopped in for a bit. When did Cheat transform into SSH2005?

“A good team puts a few extra of those in the W column.” Naw. A great team does. They are a good team and there is time left. Tough loss. I was pissed at Oz for taking out Danks but I guess I understand.

Cheat calm the fuck down. By your definition and rant there are like 2 good teams period. And I’ll take the Sox over the Angels all freaking day and would love that 1st round match up.

When did Cheat transform into SSH2005?

Tell it, brother. Tell it. But give the man a break. He’s a man – he’s just a man. He’s not a king. He’s just the same..as anyone I know.

He scares me so.

I expect this team to contend into September. I think I’ll stick with my recent pick of Minnesota to win the division (cause I already picked them and I’d hate to be flip-flopper). But I wouldn’t shocked if the Sox (or Detroit) won it either. Maybe it’s a cripple-fight, but I’ll be entertained.

Moreover I think the Sox are actually better than a “true” .500 team, even if not by much. The fact that they have lost so many close games implies that with a little luck, they be significantly better record-wise.

Finally, look at how Williams acquisitions of younger players have worked out:

1) Danks is having a legit all-star season so far.
2) Q! has a .921 OPS
3) Swisher has shown he can play CF and is an excellent bet to post some .900 OPS seasons in the cell
4) Ramirez, whom no else wanted I guess, has a .748 OPS and can play SS
5) Floyd is coming back to earth with a rising HR rate, but I believe he’s a legit starter in AL
6) Even Brian Anderson, as a holdover, has shown signs of being a very good bench player

While it’s obviously a veteran heavy team, Williams has injected significant younger talent into the club. Enough that you can have hope for the near-future, even if they fail to kae the playoffs this season.

Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. It’s just one game. And I’m pretty sure I was one of the few folks who remained positive down the stretch in ‘05. And no I didn’t do the research (I’m too lazy today). Let’s get ‘em tommorow and if we lose tommorow lets get em the next day. And hang in there larry.

The Sox lost to the Cubs, the Twins won, and the Indians are winning 2-0.

Sox lead down to 3.5 games.

I still stand by my earlier post.

This is not a great team. But they are a good team, and to look at a single stretch of 7 road games to define the season is ridiculous. If you only look at the last 10 or 12 home games, the Sox look like world-beaters. You could read off a bunch of stats from those games and make a case that the Sox are the bestest team to ever play. That isn’t any more the case then looking at the last 7 road games and saying the Sox are doomed.

The fact is the Sox only need to be good enough to make it into the playoffs and then get hot (see 2006 Cardinals). In a weak division, this is easily possible. The only real threat right now are the Tigers. I’d say we’ve exposed the Twins – they are who we thought they are. The Indians are probably too injured to be a real threat.

Part of me wonders if Cheat is just pulling an Ozzie here to get us riled up and snapped out of our game thread funk. Even if unintentional, it seems to be having the desired effect.

from my experience here, that usually means that that side is right. in the very least, it should mean the other side hasn’t made its argument fully.

Doesn’t it seem to be a little over the top to be criticizing a team for not putting away a division before July in a season that expectations were blah?

I agree with Vince, Cheat just went Ozzie on us. Step up the commentary folks!