Another in game update:

On the mound:
El Duque went two more solid innings after giving up his third run in the 5th, finishing his night with a strikeout in the 7th. Marte is on the way to the mound as I write this to relieve Politte with two down in the 8th.

At the plate:
The Sox missed a golden opportunity in the 6th, loading the bases with nobody out. Konerko promptly lined one right to the 3rd baseman, leading him to the bag for a double play. They did manage to cash in 3 runs in the 7th, finally showing a glimpse of life reminicent of the timely hitting we showed earlier in the season.

Mid-game Update

On the mound:
After throwing almost 50 pitches in the first two innings and allowing a run in each, El Duque had settled in nicely becoming somewhat more economical with his pitches, getting through the 3rd and 4th innings without much trouble. After allowing a single and a walk in the 5th, with two out he gave up a single back up the middle scoring another run. 5IP 3ER 7H thus far.
At the plate:
The Sox have had a runner on third with one out twice in the first 5 innings tonight, scoring once. With only one hit through 5 innings, the Sox offense still seems to be in it's slump. The chance's of breaking this three game slide seem slim.

On the flip side...

After a teriffic April run, the Sox have come crashing back to earth, with their losing streak now at 3. The clutch hits have not been there, as anyone who sat through last nights abysmil offensive ballgame will tell you. The Sox had the bases loaded three times throughout the game, yet were only able to score two runs. One came in the 9th inning, with the bases loaded and nobody out. Rowand hit a sac fly to deep center, scoring one and moving anonther over to third. So first and third with one out, tie ballgame, bottom of the 9th, game over....right? Wrong. Timo Perez was called upon to pinch hit for Dye, and he promptly went down swinging. For more analysis on what the hell Timo was doing in there, check out the Cheats new site, South Side Sox.
Contreras came out strong in the first, painting with his fastball, but every inning after he seemed to be working torward a full count on every hitter. Jose gave up as many walks as he did hits in this one, yet still only yeilded one run on three hits. After the Sox managed to score a run in the 5th to go up 1-0, Jose promply gave it back on his 100th or 101st pitch of the night in the top of the sixth, on a homer to White.
The Sox avg with RISP will fall again after this one, which is not easy to do when you're already hitting .205 in that catagory. They were issued 11 BB yesterday, left 16 MOB, and also had the leadoff man aboard 8 or 9 times throughout the game. Seriously, that is no exaggeration. Yet we only scored 2 runs. That is almost an impossible feat, to have left that many men on base and only score two runs. Maybe they forgot the object of the game is to score, not see how close you can come to scoring without knocking them in. The Sox bats had better wake up, because if they don't soon the Sox will be joining KC and Cleveland in the cellar of the central.

Mound Presence

In today's Sun Times Doug Padilla wrote a good article on the extraordinary pitching the Sox have had thus far this season. Coming into the season, all anyone was talking about (excluding the South Side faithful, of course) was how much power the homer-happy Sox lineup had lost with the loss of Maggs and the trade of Carlos. That argument could always be rebutted with the fact that the Sox still had six guys capable of hitting 20 homers in Crede, Uribe, Dye, Rowand, Everett and Konerko. Add in Big Frank for the stretch run if he gets his ankle healthy, and you've got a pretty solid line-up, and that's without the table setters in sPod and Iguchi, who have been solid at the plate and in the field so far this season. Now back to the pitching......How many "expert" prognosticators have you heard coming into the season credit a retooled White Sox pitching staff?? The only comments I can recall regarding it were doubts about their ability to stay healthy. To me, that argument is only valid concerning El Duque, whom they point out had to be shut down in September last year because of a tired arm. This guy is pitching in his first season since his surgery, and they wonder why his arm would tire. I think he was a risk worth taking on KW's part, especially if he can be of any help to Contreras.

So here's a rundown of how Sox pitchers have fared in the first month of the season:

Garland 4-0 1.80 ERA
After being pushed back to the 5th hole, Jon has dominated the opposition in the first month.With 4 wins in the 5th spot, he already is just one win short of equaling the win total from last year's black hole 5th starter role, which the Sox were 5-15 in.

El Duque 2-1 2.35ERA
Gamer. No other word can describe a pitcher who batters are hitting .298 against and have drawn 11 walks, yet he has only given up 9 runs.

Garcia 2-1 2.83 ERA
Freddy has been the pitcher he was advertised as when the Sox traded away highly touted prospect Jeremy Reed and C Miguel Olivo for him last summer. He's earned every dollar of the $27M bargain contract extension the Sox gave him. (bagrain especially after the off-season spike in pitchers contracts)

Buehrle 3-1 3.89 ERA
Buehrle's ERA had been 2.61 coming into his start vs. Oakland, but the 7 runs on 11 hits he surrendered to the A's made him jump over a full run. When Marks got the highest ERA out of the starters, and he's still under 4, you know things are going well.

Contreras 0-0 3.48ERA
Jose has been his same old inconsistent self, dominant one start and looking lost the next. In the latter half he has minimized the damage though, but still has given up 12 free passes in just 20 IP. A line of just 16H allowed, with 15K and an opponent avg. of .213 is impressive.

Starters combined ERA: 2.87

Bullpen
Without the 10 run meltdown vs. Cleveland in the third game of the season, the Sox pen would have a ERA of 2.45. The pen without the two guys who were mauled that day has a 2.08 ERA. Since that game the pen has a 2.47 ERA with 43K's in 17 games. Wow.

The most optimistic White Sox fan (if there is such a thing) might have envisioned this as a best case scenario, but who really believed that the Sox arms would start this well, not to mention perform like this collectively at any point during the season? I believed it was possible, but never dreamed I'd see it. I just knew we had 5 guys capable of winning every 5th day, which would have been delusional to say about our staff the last few years. Now, if only we could score some more runs so we don't have to throw shutouts and one run ballgames five times a week, maybe, just maybe, the Sox could run away with this thing.

Rude Awakening

Could this series in Oakland have been a sign of things to come from our beloved Sox??? Was this huge streak of series wins in the opening month of the season a fluke? I certainatly hope not, but the run of luck the Sox have had coming into the second game of the three game set at Oakland seems to have run out. 5 errors in the final two games in Oakland, 4 in that weird, weird ballgame Tuesday night alone (that slow roller under Willie's glove was an error, regardless of how Oaklands moron scorekeeper ruled it). Not a good sign for a team which has become overly dependant upon stellar pitching and defense thus far this season, although Rowands 9th inning error in Wednesday's game can't be held against him, as he did hold up the inning to grab sunglasses, which odviously make no difference if the ball is directly in the sun. With the amount of runs the Sox have been scoring they can't afford to give any outs away and expect to win, especially in that 1 run ballgame department, which they are now 9-2 in after yesterday's loss. Uribe, Iguchi, and Ozuna were all injured during Tuesday nights maylay of a ballgame, and all are listed as day to day. Hopefully our middle infielders will be able to return to action for Friday's game at the Cell vs. the Magglioless (out 2-3 months due to surgery for a hernia) Detroit Tigers after a much needed day off Thursday. Contrares is set to make the start after a scare with his groin last week in KC. Lets hope the last two against Oakland were a fluke, and the Sox will return to their winning ways and solid efforts, and put these last two embarassing ballgames behind them.

Due up: Robertson 0-3 6.46 vs. Contreras 0-0 3.48