Sox Sweep KC

The White Sox got another quality start from Contreras, who earned his first victory of the season this afternoon. I mentioned in my last post that this could be a pitchers duel if the starters history vs. their opponent continued to hold true today, and that's exactly what happened.

Jose pitched his best game of the season, his only run surrendered being a solo homer by Graffanino in the 7th to put the Sox down 1-0. Other than that one mistake, he looked great today. He was throwing his fastball early in counts again, and most importantly was getting ahead of hitters all day. He also worked very quickly, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was the fastest game he's pitched in his ML career.

Jose's performance still didn't match that of the pitcher he opposed this afternoon though, Zach Greinke, who had faced the minimum through 7 innings. As his pitch count was still rather low, Pena sent him out for the 8th, when things began to unravel for the Royals. He led off the inning allowing a walk to Paulie, a sac bunt by Rowand moving Ozuna who was the pinch runner for Konerko to advance to 2nd, then followed that with a HBP to Dye, and was pulled. Andrew Sisco was called upon to relieve Greinke, and after getting Burke to ground out weakly to third, he fell apart. He walked the next two hitters to force in a run, and was relieved himself after starting sPod out with a first pitch ball. Burgos, the next Royal reliever, promptly threw 3 more straight balls to walk in the go ahead run. The next batter, Iguchi, struck out to end the inning.

So the Sox managed 2 runs on no hits to score the tying and winning runs in the 8th inning. Shingo came in for the save in the ninth, but not without his own struggles. He walked 2, and threw a wild pitch allowing those runners to advance to 2nd and 3rd before getting a fly out to earn his 8th save. This game was a gift to the Sox from the Royals. Even with how great Jose looked, he got out pitched today and was lucky to earn his first victory of the season. Lets hope that we are witnessing a rebirth of sorts for Contreras, because he hasn't looked this good in back to back outings since coming over from the Yankee's last summer.