Reading Room: White Sox-Twins by the numbers

Here's the recap of Thursday's game: Michael Cuddyer homered, and nobody from the White Sox did. That's about it.

Record: 33-37 | Box score | Play-by-play. There. ScottyPods Ver2.0's version is far more entertaining.

It's more worthwhile to approach it as a quarter of the White Sox-Twins series so far, and the results aren't good. Among the facts and figures...

THREE: Runs scored by the White Sox in four games against the Minnesota Twins this year.

10: The amount of double plays the White Sox have grounded into in four games against the Minnesota Twins this year.

1-for-22: White Sox hitters with runners in scoring position in four games against the Twins this year.

12-20: The White Sox's record against losing teams this year.

FOUR: Complete games by Gavin Floyd in his White Sox career.

0-4: Floyd's record in his complete games, the worst of any pitcher since 2008. A.J. Burnett is 0-3, while Kevin Millwood (3-4) and Jeremy Guthrie (1-3) are the only other pitchers with at least four complete games and a losing record in them.

15-for-15: Baserunners in their stolen base attempts against Floyd this year, including five against him on Wednesday.

7-for-11: Baserunners in their stolen base attempts against Floyd all last year.

19: Intentional walks issued by the White Sox in 2011, tied for second in the American League.

ONE: Intentional walk issued to Brian Dinkelman on Wednesday. Dinkelman was outrighted to make room for Joe Mauer's return. Brian Dinkelman. Seriously.

3.75: Mark Buehrle's ERA after 14 starts in 2011, after seven innings of one-run ball against the Twins on Thursday, with just one interleague start.

4.71: Buehrle's ERA after 14 starts last year -- and that included three interleague starts. So there's that.

Christian Marrero Reading Room

On one hand, I'm glad that Buehrle won't be starting this series. On the other, I'd kinda like to see how that would've turned out. I'm sure we'll get another shot at it.

• Ozzie to A.J. on allowing steals: Wear it

Out of all the beat guys, you won't see anybody spell out A.J. Pierzynski's flaws more plainly than Brett Ballantini. Ozzie Guillen heard about Pierzynski throwing Gavin Floyd under the bus for Minnesota's five-steal night, and he wasn't having it:

"It’s not fair? When a guy steals second and third with a slide step, you have to wear it, you gotta admit you’re not throwing the ball well right now," Guillen said. "If you have to take the blame, take the blame. The people think it’s your fault, well, it’s somebody’s fault. It’s not my fault. It has to be between the pitcher and the catcher, and the pitcher went slide step twice."

Boom.

• Pierzynski's deflection of blame weaker than his arm - Beerleaguer

J.J. follows up by sifting through Pierzynski's caught-stealing numbers to separate the pickoffs. So he's thrown out 14.3 percent of basestealers this season, and that's with Buehrle on the mound.

He also notes that of all Pierzynski's throws that made it to second on the fly, they all ended up on the third-base side of the bag. While Cuddyer's three steals were the focal point, I thought Floyd did the best job of holding Ben Revere. He threw over to first. He used the slidestep and threw a fastball, and Revere got a pretty lousy jump. The throw was well off the bag.

• Twins' 'sardines' solve Sox again - chicagotribune.com

Ozzie Guillen continued his work as freelance Minnesota marketer, as he downgraded the dinged-up Twins from "piranhas" to "sardines." On Twitter, Rob informs us that this would render the White Sox as plankton, except sardines don't even eat plankton - they process it through their gills. Thank you, Rob.

• Ozzie: Dunn may see outfield duty | whitesox.com: News

Guillen either has to put Adam Dunn in left, or he has to bench his best hitter in Paul Konerko. Hey, if we survived Ken Griffey Jr. in center...