When the White Sox left Tampa Bay losers of their last 3, scoring a total of 4 runs, they had a half game lead in the division, and owned the 9th ranked offense (by Runs Scored) in the AL.
Ozzie went on a little rant, and the Sox have responded with a little run. They now own a 5.5 game lead on the division and sit as the 3rd highest scoring offense in the AL.
It's almost as if Ozzie knows what he's doing.
Bullet Pointing the Offensive Breakout
- The 15 hits Sunday gave Chicago at least 15 in three straight games for the first time since July 23-24, 1932, against Cleveland. -- Hat Tip WU
- The Sox have had 10 hits in each of their last 7 games. It's their first such streak since 2006, which is the only other such streak in the last 10 years.
- The Sox record for most consecutive 10 hit games (in the easily searchable retrosheet era) is 13 in... wait for it... 1997, not exactly the team you turn to for White Sox offensive records.
It wasn't too big of a leap of faith to believe the offense would come out of its funk eventually, but I don't think anyone expected it to happen like this. I think Q!s awesome is finally rubbing off on some guys.
One game down, seven more to go to make me a believer. Heck, if the offense can be half as good as it's been the last 3 days, I'll drive the bandwagon. Though I'm probably too late for that. Maybe I can take tickets, check baggage?
What's gotten into Gavin Floyd?
There were high hopes among many of us here for Gavin Floyd based on his strong final six starts of last season, during which he was able to pound the strikezone and miss a few bats. But over this seasons first 9 starts, despite the positive results on the scoreboard, Floyd struggled to both miss bats and avoid allowing the free pass. In fact, he allowed more walks than strikeouts. This led many a fantasy expert to proclaim "sell high."
Over the last three games, however, we've seen a return to the late-'07 Floyd. In 21 innings pitched, Floyd struck out 20, including a career high 9 Sunday, and walked just one batter. I was hoping to see Floyd post some better peripherals, but these last three games have been other worldly.