I'd like to thank my good friends at Rock M Nation for this idea that I have stolen (with approval, of course) and will apply to as many Sox games as I can this year. First up: Opening Day, March 31.
Good
The offense
This game could have gone in two directions after Mark Buehrle gave up seven runs in the second: The Sox could have wrote the game off as a loss after getting down by five runs to last year's Cy Young winner CC Sabathia, or they could have fought back and chipped away at the lead.
They chose the latter, and behind four runs combined between Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera, they battled back and ultimately knocked Sabathia out of the game in the sixth before tying the game against the vaunted Indians bullpen.
Jim Thome, who was previously hitless in 11 career at-bats against Sabathia, slammed a pair of two-run home runs while Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye, and AJ Pierzynski added four RBI of their own.
The way the lineup performed today made me extremely confident that this group will perform more like they did in 2006 than in 2007, even though it is very early in the season.
Nick Masset
Masset, who barely made the roster out of spring training, came in during the second inning after it became apparent that Buehrle wasn't going to get any of these Indians hitters out.
He promptly turned in 4.1 innings of two-hit ball, keeping the White Sox in the game and in a position to make a comeback.
Boone Logan
There has been a growing school of thought within the White Sox organization that believes the 23-year-old Logan will have a breakout year in 2008 after struggling mightily in 2006 and 2007.
Logan came in and retired Grady Sizemore, Jason Michaels, and Travis Hafner in order, freezing Sizemore with a nasty curveball and making Hafner look silly with the same pitch to pick up two strikeouts.
Bad
The umpiring
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're human. I know this being a little league umpire myself. But anybody who watched the game will tell you that this umpire crew cost the White Sox three huge runs because of missed or bad calls.
First, AJ Pierzynski was called out at first when it was apparent that Ryan Garko's foot was not on the bag.
A run would have scored if the correct call had been made, although I have the least problem with this call. First base umpire Brian Gorman was in position to make the call and simply missed it—something that will happen over the course of a game.
It's the next two calls that were egregiously horrendous.
With the game tied and the bases loaded in the eighth inning, Cabrera hit a slow chopper to Indians third baseman Casey Blake, who made an inaccurate throw home to catcher Kelly Shoppach. Unable to get the force at home due to the poor throw, Shoppach attempted to tag Crede, who he clearly missed.
However, home plate umpire Gerry Davis was out of position and could not see the play, deciding to call Crede out when there was no possible way that he could have seen whether he was tagged or not.
9 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Thomas Barbee about 1 year ago
Nice recap of the game. Even though I didn't mention it, I too think that Ozzie should've gotten himself ejected after that last call... I wonder if he was just too shocked to get pissed off. Truth be told, I thought Hawk Harrelson was going to run down onto the field and get thrown out for Ozzie.
I've no idea what's up with Dotel's mechanics but he looks completely out of whack so far-- I think he needs a long session with Coop. But you're right, Ozzie would be better off sticking to Linebrink in situations like that until Dotel gets his head right.
I also hope that the Uribe experience will end soon...
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JJ Stankevitz about 1 year ago
Hahahaha, oh man, I think Comcast had to cut Hawk off because he was about to go on a profanity-laced tirade. He was PISSED.
And I agree about Uribe...here's hoping that Ozzie will play Ramirez there once Owens comes back...
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Steve Jankowski about 1 year ago
I'm shocked Ozzie didn't get more upset at those calls and get himself tossed, too. And if you include the Blake slide earlier (and have that considered interference), that would be a four-run swing in the Indians' favor, already factoring the three calls missed in the 7th and 8th. The umps won this game, that's for sure.
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Bob Warja about 1 year ago
I didn't get to see the game but a friend of mine told me those were among the three worst calls he has ever seen. Not to make excuses, but if they missed all 3 calls, that's pretty damn lousy umpiring.
Good job.
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JJ Stankevitz about 1 year ago
Read any White Sox message board and you'll know how the fans felt. Although, if you're offended by a lot of swearing and things of that nature, I recommend you don't and just assume that Sox fans were incredibly pissed off.
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Scott Miles about 1 year ago
Definitely agree about the umps and the first two calls, but he made the right call at second base on Cabrera. Umps are pretty lenient when it comes towards not sliding anywhere close to the bag to try to break up a double play, but you can't reach your arms out and grab the shortstop.
The worst part about that is I don't think Peralta was going to throw out Thome anyway. He was coming off the bag at an awkward angle and didn't look like he had a good grip on the ball even before Cabrera grabbed him.
I will also say that the home plate ump, from the angle he was standing at, probably could not tell if Shoppach made the tag at the plate or not. From his angle (off the TV replays) I can definitely see why he made the call that he did.
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JJ Stankevitz about 1 year ago
After seeing the replay a few times, it looks more and more like Cabrera actually grabbed Peralta instead of just grazing him like I initially thought. But that still doesn't cover up the fact that I was horribly disappointed with the umpiring in this game...
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Nino Colla about 1 year ago
Yeah I agree with Scott.. Cabrera had no business grabbing at Peralta like he did, and had he not done so, I think the White Sox would have been fine. That wasn't a bad call at all.
The call at homeplate was pretty bad, it was a phantom tag. If he was behind Shoppach then obviously it looks like he tagged him, but he didn't.
Great recap, the Sox showed a lot of grit coming back like that. I truthfully thought that CC would just be regular CC and shut it down till it was time to turn it over to the pen. But credit the White Sox for fighting back.
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ChatterBalks about 1 year ago
"That play reeked of an umpire trying to be bigger than the game."
I see you saw the replay but Bleacher won't let me reply to your reply. That was a pretty ridiculous interference call. He was basically giving him an HJ. Look at the bright side, 3rd place in your division is pretty good. Oh wait, that's only in the AL East.
www.chatterbalks.com
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