Buehrle Comes Up Big, Sox to Play Monday

Ain’t baseball great? I was very happy for the Brewers, too — Captain Cheeseburger has been fucking amazing and Braun’s homer was real cool.

Also…. I guess that Detroit gets The Balls tomorrow, right?

i never stopped loving you.

someone other than Buehrle has to pitch tomorrow?

but when will Tuesday tix go on sale?

It’s not even listed as an “if necessary” game on the whitesox.com schedule.

Let’s beat Detroit!

That needs to be my wallpaper

here

Neko Case is playing now until 6:30. Then it’s Okkervil River until 7:30. Sound quality is pretty solid. Figured there might be someone on here interested, considering both have come up before in a few of discussions. Besides, it turns out SSS is an indie kid hangout.

MB came up HUGE! 110 pitches following 122, all on short rest, is to say the least “gutsy”.
This performance will be etched in whatever is left of my mind forever. As much or moreso than the no-no.
Thank you, Mark!

Saturday night’s game was salt in our wounds, and Mark came along with his magic elixir. Beat the hapless Tigres tomorrow and get some vengance against the Twins at home OR DIE.

They pretty much have to go with Danks, right? Tell him to give you as much as he’s got for 3-4 innings, and from there, cross your fingers? I imagine it’d be Vazquez’ or Buehrle’s throwing day, so maybe you could steal an inning or two from them.

… or that could all be for naught. In any case I’m glad to see them pull out the W today. Hopefully Gavin has his curve working tomorrow. Even though the Sox would be in a tough spot, a one-game playoff with everything on the line would be cool. I remember enjoying the hell out of last year’s Colorado/San Diego battle.

The Detroit Tigers fired pitching coach Chuck Hernandez and bullpen coach Jeff Jones on Sunday.

Although the season is not yet over for the Tigers, who will play a make-up game against the Chicago White Sox on Monday, the club dismissed the two coaches immediately following Sunday’s 8-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

"The two glaring problems with us this season was the pitching and the defense," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "Somebody had to pay the price."

Hernandez was first hired as the team’s pitching coach after the 2005 season and has served in the position for the last three seasons. However, the Tigers’ pitching staff struggled all year and entered Sunday with the fourth-worst team ERA in the majors at 4.87.

High-profile starters Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, Dontrelle Willis and Kenny Rogers had disastrous seasons as the Tigers’ season unraveled quickly.

Detroit, tabbed by many as a preseason contender in the American League, also blew 27 saves.

Jones spent two seasons as the bullpen coach, taking over for Lloyd McClendon prior to the 2007 campaign.

"These coaches were just outstanding and they will be missed," Leyland said. "I just feel terrible. They were true professionals."

Anybody notice a difference in Bobby Jenks’ approach to this appearance vs. Thursday’s?

the whole “the Tigers will be pissed they have to play tomorrow and come out hard angle”. I just can’t see it. I’m thinking (and hoping) they just kind of show up tomorrow.

Is the tigers starter tommorow?

Per Brookes Boyer (on WSCR radio a couple of hours ago), tickets for Tuesday’s game would go sale immediately after Monday’s game should the Sox win.

More questions…

1. Would it be a day game or night game?
2. Who gets the start? Danks?

here

Buster Olney just said that Freddy is related to Ozzie… married to one of his cousins.

Freddy needs to stay true to his blood (White Sox and the Venezuelan family) by throwing his typical beach balls.

nick blackburn will start for the twins

doesn’t sound too confident to me.

Its pretty heavy in Rockford right now

Going today guess I’ll pull out the rain gear. If they win I must admit I’m surprised the Twins would go with Blackburn.

I was in the ocean, enjoying the autumn sunshine glittering off the water, paddling with a giant gray seal yesterday during the game.

I should have known by the tranquility I felt, that MB was on the mound representing, as only MB can….

I’m so proud of him. siggghhhhhh.

I really wanted to call in sick today and kick back with the game, but alas, I will have to half-watch from work. I hope we can muster the offensive strength to help out the pitching staff.

One more battle! Let’s go SOX!

Matchup: Tigers (74-87) at White Sox (87-74), 1:05 p.m. CT, WGN
Probable Starters: Freddy Garcia (58 IP, 6.05 RA, 1.60 WHIP, 50 K—2007) vs. Gavin Floyd (200 1/3, 4.72, 1.26, 137)
Pythagorean Record: Detroit, 78-83 (819 RS, 849 RA); Chicago, 88-73 (802 RS, 727 RA)
Hit List Rankings: Detroit, #17; Chicago, #7
Prospectus: Mark Buehrle helped keep the Sox alive yesterday, beating the Indians 5-1 to snap the team’s five-game losing streak, and this afternoon Chicago will host Detroit in a makeup game from a rainout earlier this month to finish up their regular season. Because Minnesota also won its game on Sunday, a victory today would send the Pale Hose to a one-game playoff at U.S. Cellular against the Twins on Tuesday for the AL Central; a loss and Chicago’s playoff odds will have fallen from 87.8 percent on September 20 down to zero. Ozzie Guillen is giving the ball to Floyd on three days’ rest; he was knocked around by Minnesota for four runs in 5 2/3 innings last Thursday, a game in which he threw 101 pitches. This will be the second time in three starts that Floyd goes on short rest—he also received just three days off in between beating the Yankees on September 16 and giving up five runs over 6 1/3 innings in a loss to Kansas City on September 20. (He is 0-1 with a 7.56 RA in three career starts on short rest.) Floyd no-hit the Tigers for 7 1/3 innings way back on April 12. Both of his first two starts of the season resulted in wins against Detroit, but in two starts versus the Tigers since then he has allowed nine runs in 10 innings.

This game will feature a matchup between two players who were traded for each other, as Garcia will be making his first start against his former team since being shipped to Philadelphia by the Sox in December of 2006 for Floyd and Gio Gonzalez. Garcia departed the South Side after two and a half very solid seasons—he was 40-21 for Chicago, throwing over 200 innings with an above-average ERA in each of his two full campaigns, and was a post-season hero in 2005 when he posted a 3-0 record and 2.14 ERA in three starts to help the Sox end their 87-year championship drought. Despite his services to Chicago as a solid innings-eater, the Sox benefited from shipping Garcia off, for Floyd has emerged as a cheap, young, and capable mid-rotation starter this season, and Gonzalez was dealt again as part of the package that brought the Sox Nick Swisher. Not only that, but Chicago also got to take the $10 million Garcia was owed in the final year of his deal last season off of their books, and in light of the fact that Chief threw just 58 ineffective innings with Philadelphia before going under the knife for labrum surgery (which can often spell the end of a pitcher’s career), they’d dodged another bullet by making the deal. Garcia has made it back to start twice for Detroit since signing a minor league contract, making one good outing in his season debut against Texas and one bad one last Tuesday versus Kansas City, and now has this last chance to impress potential free-agent suitors, and also stick it to his old mates.

While Garcia will surely be pumped up to pitch this afternoon—"I got plenty text messages from him already. He says he can’t wait to beat us," Guillen said—there might not be anyone in the Tigers dugout who wants to win this game more than Magglio Ordonez. Detroit’s right fielder is one of the best hitters in White Sox history—after playing for Chicago from 1997 to 2004, he ranks third in the team’s annals in slugging percentage, fourth in OPS, and fifth in home runs. Ordonez’s impressive tenure with the Sox was brought to a sour end by the knee injury he suffered that limited him to 52 games in ’04, and by his acrimonious relationship with Guillen, who was then in his first season as skipper. After Ordonez departed in free agency to the Tigers, the two engaged in verbal hostilities, with Guillen producing a profane tirade about his former outfielder. (The animosity between Guillen and Ordonez may well have faded, however, especially since Guillen picked Ordonez as a reserve on the 2006 All-Star team.) While Ordonez has not approached the numbers put up in his career 2007 season, he has posted his third straight year of 30-plus doubles, 20-plus homers, and 100-plus RBI, and ranks fifth in the AL with a .318 batting average.

Besides the satisfaction of knocking Chicago out of the playoff picture, Ordonez and Co. will also be playing to avoid spending all winter alone in the division’s basement, for a win would move them into a tie with Kansas City for fourth place. Gary Sheffield has extra motivation to hammer away at the White Sox as well, for he stands one long ball shy of becoming the 25th player to hit 500 homers.

Has the crap weather hanging around until early evening.

There’s a nice steady mist out here in the Western burbs.

Does a rain delay help or hurt Sweaty Freddy? It will provide him with additional “toke time,” so the Sox may be able to rock his mellow ass.

Monday’s Sox-Tigers lineups
White Sox

Cabrera ss
Wise lf
Dye rf
Thome dh
Konerko 1b
Griffey rf
Ramirez 2b
Pierzynski c
Uribe 3b
Floyd p

Tigers

Granderson cf
Sheffield dh
Ordonez rf
Cabrera 1b
Thames lf
Rayburn 2b
Inge 3b
Ryan c
Santiago ss
Garcia p
 

Hasn’t really stopped raining for a couple hours.

will die on the battleground Thursday. They have to be exhausted. I know I am.

game going to start on time?