In Southern California, Fastball Sinks You!

Trying to get this in before the 50+ crowd heads off to bed..

To start it off, TAEG has you covered if you missed the game thread.  Solid effort out of our boys at their glowing machines tonight.  If they eventually take over, at least we'll have gotten some solid utility out of them that's documented for the ages.

As for the game itself, Buehrle was on his tonight.  He managed a 5:2 GO/FO ratio and was really only hit hard on the lone Dodger run of the game, a home run.  It was his fourth consecutive start lasting 8 innings and fifth consecutive quality start.  Just as Jose looks like his ship may be sinking, Buehrle's righting his.  Such are the vagueries of baseball.

At the plate, Sox hitters started off the game with three straight singles and after JD looked terrible on the first of two K's, Swish came through with a timely sac fly.  After that run and another an inning later, it looked like that's all the Sox would get and, thanks to Buehrle's dominance, would need.  Lowe's sinker was nasty and had a 6:1 GO/FO ratio on the evening.  He was dealing and it looked like he'd keep the Dodgers close enough to perhaps pull off yet another heartbreaker before JD decided to unsuck.

And unsuck he did with a monster blast to right center in the top of the eighth.  And thus were the floodgates open.  A Delwyn Young miscue became a Dewayne Wise triple that scored Swish and Alexei scored Wise with a single.  Thus, 6-1 and Scott Linebrink relieved Mark to lock down the ninth.

The questions to be answered:

• What should we expect from Dewayne Wise going forward?  He's looked like an adept bat handler, to steal a phrase, and the sort of guy I wouldn't mind hitting ninth.  He seems to have some on base skills and hasn't looked baffled on offspeed stuff.  He looks at least as capable as BA at the moment and he's left handed.  I would be quite alright if we DFA'd Ozuna to keep him on the roster.
• Three consecutive games versus sinkerballers went relatively well.  Should we expect that to continue?  Lowe, outside of Brandon Webb, has the best sinker in the game.  We were mowed down until JD worked a count.  Dempster didn't look like great shakes and Marquis was obviously quite hittable.  I personally think this will be a weakness going forward, but it remains to be seen.
• How good are the Twins, really?  I say about .500, give or take a few, at best.