The critics who think the White Sox offense is too homer-dependent got some more ammunition on Wednesday night against the Dodgers, as the Sox weren't able to plate a single run without the aid of the longball.
Of course when you hit 6 of them, the most in a single game since 2004, and have a few of them come with men on base, who's gonna complain?
The 10 runs were more than enough for Gavin Floyd, who struggled with his breaking stuff all night and didn't get much help from his defense in the 2nd inning. Still he was able to run his string of quality starts to 7. He's been on a roll since getting a jolt of SSS mojo at the SSS outing on May 22nd, going 4-2 with a 1.90 ERA.
Wednesday marked the second straight game that he didn't really have a wipeout pitch, yet he was able to grind his way through to hand the ball to the bullpen with a lead. After his first handful of starts this season, I was beginning to think we weren't going to see that guy we came to know as BHB anymore. It's good to see he's back. He should stick around for a while, like maybe another 3+ seasons.
Ozzie Guillen needs to get some credit for plugging Josh Fields in the lineup at 1B today. Jim Thome had been on the bench for the entire NL road trip, and I'm sure most of you, like me, figured he would be penciled into the lineup nearly every game this home stand. But Ozzie had other ideas, giving Fields the nod against Randy Wolf, a left-handed pitcher with a repertoire he figured to have a good matchup against. Ozzie was right.
Fields singled in first at-bat against Wolf, then put the Sox up 5-3 with a 2-run bomb in his second. It was one of his 2007-esque high flyball, looks like a long pop-out homers, that he actually broke hit bat on. He wouldn't get a chance to face Wolf a third time, but it didn't matter. He found the outfield stands for the second time on the first pitch he saw from Corey Wade, on a fastball no less. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the lineup again this week at home, maybe at 3B, as Gordon Beckham saw his home OPS drop to .185.
Axe Shower Tool of the Game: Jimmy Gobble, for turning a 6-run game into an impossible-to-resist low-leverage save opportunity for Bobby Jenks.