With Paul Konerko getting his first rest of the season, Jermaine Dye filled his shoes more than admirably. Unfortunately for the White Sox, not a single pitcher showed up for the game.
There were men standing sixty feet-six inches from home plate when the Indians were batting, but calling them pitchers would be quite generous. Pitchers get people out. These men delivered meatballs that got sprayed out all over Jacobs Field.
Twice this series, White Sox starters have given up 3 run leads. Twice on Thursday, the White Sox bullpen blew a late lead. The bullpen has taken the loss in three of the Sox last eleven games.
Please pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. The bullpen is fine. Finding a center fielder who can hit is weight is our problem.
Yeah right. I'm sure Kenny's working behind the scenes exploring all options, but this bullpen situation is bad. Politte is terrible. Nelson? Good idea, but he's used up. McCarthy, needs to find his changeup, and not the one he threw to Ronnie Belliard. Matt Thornton, back on notice. Neal Cotts, hasn't gotten outs when we need them most. That leaves Bobby Jenks, the guy who showed up to camp out of shape and overweight, as the only pitcher I trust at all.
You'd think they'd want to help the pitching staff out with a good defense, but that's not the case either. In the last 2 weeks, I can think of three separate plays recorded as triples that would have been outs with Mr. Anderson in center field. These plays have lead to 6 runs or better in close contests. Ozzie, the defensive all glove, no-hit SS of Sox teams past, apparently doesn't see fit to play an all glove, no-hit CFer, despite the obvious defensive shortcomings of Rob Mackowiak. Instead he'll platoon Anderson, batting him only against left-handed pitching, who he's hit even less (if that's possible) than right-handers.