At least Thornton shook off that sore back.

from our seats on the first-base line, we didn’t have a good view of pitch locations unless they were obviously well outside the zone, so i can’t comment on that.

as for anderson’s attempted ring around the rosey, i don’t have much of a problem with cox on this one. swisher was down 0-2 with two outs and sending anderson forced barton to make what is probably the longest or one of the longest throws he’s ever made while playing first base. maybe cox should have given a bit more weight to anderson’s initial confusion when he reached second, but i just don’t think it was a terrible play.

dotel had a bad outing, but that’s baseball. can’t go too nuts about that. guys will give up home runs. and remember, nostradamus was wrong a remarkable amount of the time (like maybe worse than tona pena jr.). not sure you’re doing jre any favors with that comparison.

i will never understand this obsession over suzuki v. lucy. couldn’t you do this with every gm multiple times in every draft when you use hindsight? regardless, this ain’t quite michael jodan v. sam bowie.

ramirez baserunning = ugly tonight, particularly the second one where it didn’t even look like he was running on first move.

the real issues i had with the game were ozzie’s pitching decisions, which usually don’t leave a whole lot to quarrel with. first, i don’t understand leaving gavin in the game after uribe’s oopsie resulted in thomas reaching a hitter ahead of cust. i know floyd was still clinging (or clenching?) to a shutout, but by the time he faced cust for the third time he was at ~105 pitches (meaning he was toast after the 6th at best regardless) AND easy heat was already warm. i appreciate ozzie giving guys a long rope, but not as much in a place where winning doesn’t come easy and a better option was already warm.

the second pitching issue is bringing ramirez in to start the 9th, even though jenks was warm, because the sox no longer had the lead. we’ve been over the use of jenks in high-leverage, non-save situations before, so that’s all i’m going to say there.

finally, like you, i don’t understand why they didn’t intentionally walk suzuki to at least set up a double play or attempt to induce a strike out or pop out from a far inferior hitter in patterson. moreover, why not do it with ramirez still in the game to face patterson?

oh well, just another game and there’s another chance today. hopefully more missile shots from q! to follow.

Sure…

Like I said, put him up against the A’s or the Royals (and the attendant mediocre crowd), and he’s just fine.

It’s not just the game situation. It’s the whole atmosphere.

by The Jerry Royster Experience on Aug 9, 2008 1:59 PM CDT

only thing the Republicans are good for

for letting our pitchers pump fastball after fastball to Jack Cust, when it’s the only damn pitch he can hit?

According to game day…

91 MPH fastball from Floyd to Cust = single
92 MPH fastball from Floyd to Cust = walk
92 MPH fastball from Floyd to Cust = homer
94 MPH fastball from Dotel = homer

In the entire game, Cust saw a total of 1 slider, 2 changeups, 3 curveballs, and a whopping 14 fastballs.

Cust’s two homers were both on 0-2 counts and every pitch in those two AB’s was a fastball. Both homers came on 0-2 pitches right over the middle of the plate. Essentially, 0-2 meatballs.

Scott Linebrink (shoulder) made 70 throws from 150 feet on Friday afternoon.
“I guess it’s a good sign because we’re working to the end, getting everything firing again,” he said. Linebrink will have a similar workout on Saturday. He’s not expected back before the end of August.

Source: WhiteSox.mlb.com