The Sox opened their spring training games with a loss to the Rockies. They were nearly shutout, but a 9th inning triple by Jerry Owens, and a sac fly by Robert Valido saved the defending World Series champs the indignity.
On the mound, Garland and Contreras each pitched well for two innings, before tiring in their third inning of work. Arnie Munoz pitched a solid inning, recording two strikeouts.
The game also marked the debut of Chris Singleton in the radio booth. I didn't really hear any of it. All I caught was the very last inning when they were fawning over the movement of Charlie Haeger's knuckleball, just before he gave up 3 runs in an inning of work. Jim, over at the Sox Machine, was relieved to find that Singleton wasn't as bad as he had originally feared. Teddy Greenstein, the Trib's Sports Media guy, gave a favorable review, though I doubt he would have trashed the guy after one spring training broadcast.
To answer your question, Ryan Sweeney.
Mike Downey writes about Rob Mackowiak's first ever game in a White Sox uniform. The best part of the article isn't about Mack though, it's when Downey can't find anything positive to say about Timo Perez' contribution in '05.
Blum's homer won Game 3. Everett hit .444 in the Series. Harris hit 1.000 in the entire postseason. El Duque didn't give up a run in it. Marte was the winning pitcher of Game 3. Rowand had a half-dozen doubles in October alone. Vizcaino's ERA in the playoffs was a perfect 0.00.
Perez? Well, [...] Perez was the guy who would take a curtain call, wave his cap and pretend to be the one who hit a home run if a Paul Konerko or a Jermaine Dye was a bit slow in leaving the dugout to take a bow.
Two games later today, as the Sox have split squad duty. Javier Vazquez and Freddy Garcia are the starters in each game. They will then 'report' to their respective WBC teams. I'm not exactly sure how all of this is going to work out, I suppose we may not see Vazquez and Garcia back in Tucson until March 21st. I'm not worried about Garcia, as it seems the Venezuelan pitching coach is Roberto Espinoza, who is also the Sox pitching coach for their rookie ball Bristol White Sox.