There will come a time in the distant future when there will be no Seattle, no Oakland, no California at all. The entire west coast will be swallowed up by the Pacific Ocean, either at the hands of global warming and the melting polar ice caps, or lopped off all together thanks to a massive earthquake. In this New New World, the White Sox will be a perennial 110-win juggernaut that rules MLB.
For now, with the White Sox having won just two west coast series in the last 5+ seasons, we can only dream of such a utopia, holding onto the belief that someday the west coast will be no more.
For now, we just have to take our lumps as our manager rests half his starting lineup in a series opener, as our offense shows up only sporadically, as we invent new ways to lose.
I can accept a loss like last night's. We got outplayed. Over the course of a season that's going to happen a number of times. But games like this, when you legitimately get beat by a 90-loss team, make games like Monday's opener hurt all the more.
There's not much positive to say about this game.
- Buehrle ground through 7 innings when he didn't have his best stuff. -- He didn't strike out a single batter. He hasn't done that since this brutal start against Minnesota 98 starts ago. So I guess you could say this was a one-in-a-hundred bad start.
- Brian Anderson went hitless, yet continues to look better at the plate. His wrists seem to be getting quicker, which hopefully is a sign that he's trying to step away from the "slowing his bat down" approach. The most encouraging sign was his at-bat against Rafael Soriano in the 8th inning where he smoked the first pitch foul. For most of the year, Anderson has been late on practically everything early in the count. He's been in protect mode from the moment he stands in the batter's box. Once he starts getting a little more aggressive with his approach, we'll see that average start to rise.
- Um that's about it.
- Bobby Jenks inning was extremely harmful to the Sox chances of winning the game. WPA might not have it down as being that detrimental, but it can't accurately take into account who Mike Hargrove would have turned to in a save situation.
Everyday Eddie was getting warm to come in for the 3-run save in the 9th, but when Jenks allowed the M's to push it to a 4 run lead, Hargrove went away from his closer, turning to J.J. Putz, who can actually pitch. I was actually expecting a White Sox victory until Jenks allowed the run, ensuring Everyday would not be today.