Good
Nick Masset
Masset replaced a struggling Gavin Floyd in the fourth inning and threw 2.1 excellent innings of work, not allowing a run or hit with two walks and two strikeouts.
Really, Masset has done everything asked of him this year. He's come out of the bullpen when needed and, for the most part, has kept the Sox in every game he's pitched. As a long reliever, that's about all you can ask for.
Boone Logan
Logan looked good in his one inning of work, not allowing a run and giving up just one hit. His ERA is now down to 3.23.
Orlando Cabrera
Cabrera had an excellent day at the plate, going 4/5 with a run scored. Usually, if your leadoff man gets four hits, you're going to score a lot of runs, but that was not the case today for the White Sox (see below).
Bad
The offense
13 LOB (seven with two out) and 4/14 w/RISP is not going to cut it. Individually, the Sox left 24 men on base.
Yikes.
A week ago, getting men on base was the problem. Today, the White Sox had no problem getting on base, as they banged out 11 hits and took four walks—but were completely unable to bring those men home when they needed to.
It really looked like this team was making progress offensively against Minnesota (minus the May 7 game) and Seattle in the first two games, but today was a big step backwards.
The White Sox cannot afford games like this. I've been harping on this since early April—the Sox need to win as many games as they can right now if they want to insulate themselves from a big run by Cleveland that is basically inevitable.
Gavin Floyd
Plain and simple, Floyd didn't have his best stuff today. His command never has been stellar this year, but it was much worse than it had been, as he was consistently falling behind in counts and putting men on base.
In his 3.2 innings of work, Floyd allowed five runs (all earned) on nine hits and two walks. It could have been much, much worse if not for a couple of key double plays Floyd was able to induce.
I think everybody was expecting Floyd to have a start like this at some point, so I'm not too disappointed so long as he comes out against San Francisco in his next start and pitches well.
Indifferent
Ehren Wassermann
Wassermann didn't have his best stuff in the bottom of the eighth inning, allowing one run to score, but he didn't deserve to have an earned run to be charged to him.
With two out and men on first and second, Miguel Cairo hit a fly ball down the right field line that Nick Swisher took a poor route to, allowing it to fall in for a ground-rule double that scored the Mariners' sixth run of the game.
Still, Wassermann's ERA is now 23.63. Although, considering how poorly Mike MacDougal has pitched at AAA, Wassermann's probably not going anywhere anytime soon unless the organization is really confident in Adam Russell.
2 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Wally Wojciechowski about 1 year ago
When I look at Floyd and Danks it clearly seems that Floyd has the better stuff, but I think that Danks will be able to last longer. Crafty lefties can get away with it. As for Floyd, look into his BABIP stat. (you can get it on The Hardball Times) He is due to see his ERA inflate as he has been quite lucky up to this point on balls in play.
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JJ Stankevitz about 1 year ago
It's odd, isn't it? You'd think with Floyd's stuff, he'd have a whole lot more K's and a whole lot less walks.
Up until yesterday, though, Floyd really wasn't getting hit hard, which is why I don't fully trust BABIP. However, his ERA will likely continue to rise until it evens out somewhere around 4.00, if you ask me.
As for Danks, he has better stuff than another White Sox crafty lefty—Mark Buehrle—and, if he harnesses it and really learns to use his cutter inside on hitters, could be a very, very good pitcher for years to come.
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