It's Saturday night, and I don't feel like writing a recap. Here's some quick notes.
- Vazquez had a great fastball, good control of his slider, and rarely threw the curve or change, though one changeup that I saw was dynamite.
- The last time Javier Vazquez had a 1-hit, 0 run performance was September 14, 1999.
- For all the pre-season complaints about the top of the line-up, the Sox have scored in the first inning of all 4 games. It's the middle of the lineup and the middle innings where they've struggled so far.
The official word on Mark Buehrle is that he's progressing as expected, but it doesn't sound too promising to me.
"My hand is a little swollen, so it felt like I was throwing a softball, but other than that, there were no problems," Buehrle said.
He was hit near the elbow... and his hand is still swollen two days later. I'm no doctor -- though I assume Herm Schneider is -- but if my strain my knee and two days later my foot is swollen, I'm fricken' worried.
[...]
"[Because of] the swelling, trying to grip the ball, that's about the only problem."
If his hand isn't 100%, I hope the Sox skip him. His most effective pitch is probably his cutter, a pitch that is almost all "feel." If he can't throw that or even his changeup, the Sox need to turn to Masset.