Orioles 3, White Sox 3: The Good, Bad, and Indifferent

Box Score 

Update: This game has been suspended and will be finished at a later date. Since I've already got all this stuff written, here's the good, bad, and indifferent for a game that may not be completed until August.

Good

Carlos Quentin

Three times in the "good" column a row? Why not? Carlos Quentin has been absolutely on fire in this seven-game homestand, and today was no different.

Quentin went 3-for-4 with a walk, single, double, and a game-tying home run (his sixth longball and 20th RBI of the year), that coming in the sixth.

With his performance today, he's raised his batting average to .312 and his on-base to around .450. The double came in the 10th and he should have scored the winning run had the Sox not ran a suicide squeeze with Brian Anderson, a player who rarely bunts.

The best part? Quentin is only 25.

His ceiling is still high — and he's really starting to show off that ability that Arizona saw in him when they selected him in the first round of the 2003 draft out of Stanford.  

Javier Vazquez

Vazquez bounced back in a big way after a rough start against New York April 23, throwing eight strong innings, allowing one run on four hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts.

The lone run came on a second-inning solo shot by Aubrey Huff. Outside of that hiccup, Vazquez was dominant. 

His curveball and changeup were both impressive, as he was able to use them to keep hitters off balance while locating his fastball well.

I really wasn't all that worried about Vazquez after that start against the Yankees — but again, he's going to have to eliminate those poor starts if he wants to lead this Sox rotation into October.

Today was certainly a step in that direction, but I'd love to see him put together five of these starts in a row and really fulfill that ace ability he flashed while in Montreal. 

Juan Uribe

Baseball sure is a funny game.

After an absolutely awful bottom of the 10th inning and a home run by Ramon Hernandez in the top of the 11th, the White Sox looked dead to rights with Juan Uribe, Nick Swisher, and Orlando Cabrera coming up in the bottom of the inning, all of whom had been struggling.

So, second pitch of the inning to Uribe?

How about a game-tying home run that lands 10 rows behind the bullpen in left field?

Yeah, that sounds good.

Uribe absolutely unloaded on a George Sherrill fastball to tie the score at three, a classic "where did that come from?" moment.

However, maybe it wasn't a fluke.

Uribe came to the plate with a different batting stance, one that is more open and straight up. And hey, it got results in its first test run.   

Bad

Alexei Ramirez

AJ Pierzynski

Talk about your bad days. Pierzynski went 0-for-6 in today's marathon and was unable to stay on any pitch that came his way, frequently flying out weakly in big spots.

Hopefully, Pierzynski will realize what he was doing and fix that for the upcoming games.  

The weather

When this game finally got underway after a two-hour and five-minute rain delay, the temperature was 38 degrees.

It was raining all game and by the 10 inning, the game was being played in a very steady rain. Puddles were all over the infield and the outfield grass looked extremely slick.

Basically, it was miserable. 

Granted, this shouldn't be a surprise for Chicago weather. On May 20 of last year, the White Sox took on the Cubs at Wrigely Field in 38-degree temperatures with howling winds.

Needless to say, that was miserable as well.

But that doesn't take away from the fact that this simply isn't baseball weather. Heck, it's not even football weather. It's just bad, bad weather.

Hopefully, today was the last time the Sox will have to play when the temperature is below 50, but again, knowing Chicago, that's far from a likelihood.

The game reached the top of the 12th before conditions got so bad that there had to be another rain delay. At that point, the game was suspended and will be finished at a date to be determined.

Bobby Jenks

Jenks blew his second straight save opportunity against Baltimore, a team that really just seems to have Jenks' number.

For instance, Melvin Mora, who delivered the game-tying hit, is now 3-for-6 off Jenks in his career. Roberts has doubled in both his at-bats this year against Jenks as well.

I'm not making excuses for Jenks — this was a save he should have made — but again, the Orioles really just seem to have his number. Let's see how he does against other clubs before making a rash judgment on Jenks.

The offense

Despite drawing eight walks and collecting eight hits, the White Sox could only muster three runs today, leaving 14 men on base.

The poor offensive performance was not a product of Orioles' starter Daniel Cabrera pitching, but simply a product of this lineup not hitting when they needed to. 

The first run came on Quentin’s homer in the sixth and the second on an RBI single off the bat of Paul Konerko in the seventh. Uribe's home run in the 11th added the other run for the Sox. 

There were a lot of pop-ups and weak fly outs today — signs that a lot of batters in this lineup are not staying on the ball very well.

So, while they're getting on base, they aren't scoring — an occurrence that has happened all too often in the past week.

Ozzie Guillen

This game should have been over in the 10th, but Guillen took the bat out of Brian Anderson's hands by telling him to try to lay down a suicide squeeze bunt with Carlos Quentin on third base. 

I like the idea to squeeze, but with Anderson? He's not a bunter. Not at all.

That was a horrible, horrible managing move by Guillen. If he wanted to squeeze, he should have put Pablo Ozuna up, who is an excellent bunter.

Furthermore, Anderson had the walk-off hit against New York April 24. Why can't Guillen just trust him to hit a measly fly ball?

Indifferent 

Scott Linebrink

Linebrink didn't deserve this. The game should have been over in the 10th, but Guillen's mismanagement of the game forced Linebrink to take the mound in the 11th.

What happened? A leadoff home run by Ramon Hernandez.

Linebrink pitched just fine in his first inning and only allowed the home run to Hernandez. It was far from a bad outing, but it wasn't good either because he gave up the run.