Tigers 6, White Sox 5 (10 innings): Another September sweep

by Jim Margalus on Sep 14, 2011 11:05 PM CDT in White Sox Game Recaps

Today's game pitted two strong forces against each other, and no, the White Sox don't count. I'm talking about the pull of the .500 mark against their September inferiority to the Tigers.

It turned to be a thriller, but the latter party won, as the Tigers scored three runs in the ninth, then tacked on one in the 10th for the second sweep of the Sox in one fortnight. Going back to last year, the the Tigers have swept three September series in a row, and have won 12 straight against the White Sox in this particular month.

And Dylan Axelrod, making his first career start, suffered more than most. I'm going to go more into his start tomorrow, but he did everything he could with his modest set of tools, and he held the Tigers in check for two runs over six innings.

Pitchers with far nastier stuff lost control of this game. Chris Sale pitched wonderfully in the eighth, bailing out Jesse Crain by coming in with runners on first and second and nobody out, and getting Victor Martinez to bounce into a double play. He escaped the eighth unscored upon, but the ninth was a different story.

It started when Jim Leyland summoned Sox-killer Ryan Raburn off the bench, and he went to work by taking Sale deep with one out in the ninth, making it a 5-3 game. After Sale walked Magglio Ordonez unnecessarily, Ozzie Guillen brought in Sergio Santos to counter pinch-hitter Brandon Inge. Except Leyland countered that move by bringing in All-Star catcher Alex Avila, who jumped on Santos' second pitch and tied the game with a homer to right-center.

Guillen's poor managing continued when he bunted Juan Pierre to second after Pierre led off the ninth with a walk That both wasted an out and set up a Paul Konerko intentional walk. And even though Pierre ended up stealing third, A.J. Pierzynski ended up grounding sharply into a 4-6-3 double play, following by a helmet slam, then a helmet kick.

That pretty much showed the White Sox were beaten, but the Tigers made it official in the 10th when Martinez led off with a double, and pinch-runner Will Rhymes scored on a Carlos Guillen single to score the winning run. Jose Valverde struck out the side in the ninth.

It should've been an easier game, especially after the Sox struck for four in the third inning. They loaded the bases with nobody out, but Brad Penny struck out Gordon Beckham, and got Pierre to bounce into a 3-2 fielder's choice. Ramirez followed by blooping a double down the right field line to snap the team's streak of 15 hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position. Konerko then drove in two more with a single to center, giving Axelrod a 4-1 lead.

The Sox even answered a Detroit run in the sixth with one of their own. Alejandro De Aza led off with a double, and then scored when Gordon Beckham's hot shot down the line deflected off Wilson Betemit's wrist and into left field, restoring the three-run margin.

Oddly enough, Betemit did find a way to hurt the Sox with his defense when he made a diving stab on Brent Morel's hard grounder to Betemit's right. It saved a run, and it was one the Sox could've used.

Record: 73-75 | Box score | Play-by-play

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Here's me meeting a Sox player at SoxFest 2012

PROMOTE GREG WALKER!

by billyok on Sep 14, 2011 11:46 PM CDT reply actions 5 recs

After this awful season

I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly what Beckham looks like come January.

Furious George! What happened to your beautiful face?!?

by AirTrafficAJ on Sep 14, 2011 11:51 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

i said it in the game thread...

but that bunt of ramirez was ridiculous. that pissed me off more than the multi pinch homers and the fact they blew a chance to get the kid his first win. who knows if he’ll ever be that close again.

but the fact that guillen took the bat out of the hands of ramirez and konerko (who accounted for 4 of the 5 sox runs on the day) blew my mind. Horrid.

Kenwo4life=ratings. Just call me Mr. USA Today.

by KenWo4LiFe on Sep 15, 2011 12:49 AM CDT reply actions

He's done that consistently...hasn't he?

I hate bunting almost in any circumstance in the AL. To me, it’s a waste of an out. I think Terry Francona rarely bunts.

Baseball analysts have been near universal in their condemnation of the overuse of the sacrifice bunt. While acknowledging it as the correct strategy in a small number of cases, most feel that any gain in moving players around the bases is more than offset by giving up an out, the “clock” in baseball.

Was trying to find sacrifice bunts leaders by team this season. Couldn’t find it.

by JofpGallagher on Sep 15, 2011 2:41 AM CDT up reply actions

B-R

We’re 2nd with 47, behind KC with 52.
League average is 34.

Some people get so rich they lose all respect for humanity. That's how rich I want to be.

by MarketMaker on Sep 15, 2011 7:00 AM CDT up reply actions

If you include sac bunt attempts, bunts put down which didn't get the job done

that number goes up to 72. Still 2nd behind LAA who sits at 73. If you include situations where we failed to get the bunt in play early in the count and then had to swing away later down in the count (B-R doesn’t track this), there’s a good chance we’d be leading the league since Guillen has asked guys to bunt who haven’t been good at it this year (Alexei, Morel, Lillibridge).

by 3E8 on Sep 15, 2011 9:26 AM CDT up reply actions

But Scioscia is a genius!

Just by the numbers he looks like a push-button idiot, too.

"MY NAME IS YOANIS CESPEDEZ YOU KILLED MY FATHER" WHAT!

by winningugly on Sep 15, 2011 9:59 AM CDT up reply actions

In his defense, he is willing to bench high paid turds and play young guys

See Vernon Wells and Mike Trout

by joewho112 on Sep 15, 2011 10:11 AM CDT up reply actions

This is true.

"MY NAME IS YOANIS CESPEDEZ YOU KILLED MY FATHER" WHAT!

by winningugly on Sep 15, 2011 10:12 AM CDT up reply actions

Completely agree with this

Almost more so that most of the Sox don’t do it right! How many times have we seen a bunt get popped up?

Why is Ramirez still batting second? Purely because Ozzie doesn’t want to have 2 lefties at the top of the lineup?

by KahNives on Sep 15, 2011 7:27 AM CDT up reply actions

Another major problem with bunting is when the batter misses or fouls twice and gets down 0-2 or 1-2

Now the batter tries to hit, but from a bad count, which gives the pitcher an even bigger advantage than if the batter started trying to hit with a 0-0 count. We’ve dug ourselves into this hole a lot when we try to bunt.

Not sure if they keep a stats on the number of times a batter tries to bunt but fails twice and then tries to hit, and what the resulting batting average is. Could call these stats:

— Failed Attempted Bunt At Bats Which Result In Two Strike Count (FABABWRITSC)

— Percentage of Attempted Bunt At Bats Which Result In Two Strike Counts

— Batting Average After FABABWRITSC, or BAAFABABWRITSC

Baseball is life.

by elgonzo4sox on Sep 15, 2011 9:10 AM CDT up reply actions

yes, that was terrible. if the personnel in that situation was different i would understand it more.

but when you’re playing for just one run a bunt can be defensible. i am still enraged by ozzie’s decision to make morel bunt in the second inning with men on first and second and no one out. in a lot of ways i think that was worse.

"michael gilhaney is an example of a man that is nearly banjaxed from the principal of the atomic theory. would it astonish you to hear that he is nearly half a bicycle?" ~~ sergeant pluck

by BuehrleMan on Sep 15, 2011 7:33 AM CDT up reply actions

eh i didn't mind the morel one as much.

but when you need one run and you have ramirez and konerko up… why on earth would you take the bat from both of them. Rongey said because ramirez may have hit into a double play. thats ridiculous. so alexei might hit into one but AJ won’t?

Kenwo4life=ratings. Just call me Mr. USA Today.

by KenWo4LiFe on Sep 15, 2011 8:08 AM CDT up reply actions

both were bad. i still think i disliked the morel bunt more.

i don’t know the exact run expectancy in today’s lower scoring environment but i would say that the only time a team should be bunting in the second inning with men on first and second, no one out and losing 1-0 is if the pitcher is batting.
did you see who was batting after morel for fuck’s sake? it’s almost like bunting with a pitcher coming up next.

"michael gilhaney is an example of a man that is nearly banjaxed from the principal of the atomic theory. would it astonish you to hear that he is nearly half a bicycle?" ~~ sergeant pluck

by BuehrleMan on Sep 15, 2011 8:22 AM CDT up reply actions

and i have forgotten to mention in all this

consider who was pitching. it’s not like they were facing cy young (or even cy chen). it was brad penny. not only is he mostly awful but from the little i saw of the game he looked putrid, leaving all kinds of pitches up and right over the plate.

"michael gilhaney is an example of a man that is nearly banjaxed from the principal of the atomic theory. would it astonish you to hear that he is nearly half a bicycle?" ~~ sergeant pluck

by BuehrleMan on Sep 15, 2011 9:42 AM CDT up reply actions

How did Axelrod look?

I didn’t get to see the game – how did Axelrod look? Did he look like he could be a back-end rotation guy? Middle reliever? Did he look like a major league pitcher or AAAA?

by Cliff Poncier on Sep 15, 2011 8:02 AM CDT reply actions

He looked like an incredibly small sample size

Cannot make any sort of judgment on one game.

The only Sox “non starting five” pitchers with enough of a sample size to consider for the 5 man rotation next year, in my book, are Chris Sale and Philip Humber. I don’t even think Zach Stewart has a large enough sample size.

Baseball is life.

by elgonzo4sox on Sep 15, 2011 9:14 AM CDT up reply actions

I have a post coming later this morning with first impressions.

Whales! Squids! Sharks! They're everywhere! Hello, I am Poseidon! Now, when people told me I was crazy that thinly sliced roast beef would be a delicious fast-food option, I knew it was the greatest idea, and you can thank me later for Arby's.

by Jim Margalus on Sep 15, 2011 9:40 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions