Ugh.
In a 162 game season, you shouldn't make sweeping generalizations based on one game or even one series. But damn! This trip to Baltimore just seems to highlight everything that we think is wrong with the sox...
And to top it off the power went off at the 'rents house -- AGAIN -- when I got to this point in the recap. For those noticing that this is at least the 3rd time I've referenced a power outage this season, blame Nicor. They seem to be a constant presence in my parents neighborhood. And the worse news is I came home this weekend to find some little flags in marking buried utilities in our front yard. Suburban Hell, indeed.
The White Sox managed just 5 hits in 10 innings, and just 10 runs in the 4 game series.
This was supposed to be an easy series, a split for sure, probably a 3-1 series win, and hopefully a split. Instead the Sox return to Chicago with their tail between the legs, and their offensive holes showing for the suddenly hot, now-tied-for-first-place Twins to take full advantage.
This was supposed to be our second look at Edwin Jackson, a chance to see if there really had been a change in his style -- and stuff -- since his brief work with Coop. The Baltimore offense is hardly one to use as an effective yardstick, so what might have been a celebratory post about another low-walk, high K outing -- one in which his slider was much more consistent -- we're forced to focus upon what's missing. Namely, the offense.
And that's what makes this series so frustrating.
This series was supposed to give the Sox some cushion for the impending 7-out-of-10 with the second place Twins. The fact that those Twinkies are no longer in second place would have been bad enough. But the route that the White Sox took to get here is the real punch in the gut. Three 1-run losses, two of them in extra-inning, walk-off fashion. It's a real kick in the grapes.
Adding to fan-murdering quotient of this series was the fact that the pitching was largely excellent. The Orioles only scored 11 runs in the series, and twice won while scoring fewer than 4 runs. The offense, the one which we've been complaining about since April, the one that was supposed to be fixed with an internal list of candidates in May, the one that surely should have been upgraded at the deadline, was to blame in each instance.
No, the season is not over based on this one series -- If any fans in baseball should know that this season, it's us -- there are still 3 series with the Twins on the schedule; 6 games in the next 10 days. The Sox are still masters of their own destiny. I'd just feel a whole lot better if they were running into the Twins as a competent offense with some new blood in the lineup.