Pale Hose Sweep O's

The Sox swept the Orioles for the first time in about 50 years with their 6-3 victory in Baltimore Monday afternoon. The one downside coming out of the game was that Mark Buehrle's streak of pitching at least 6 innings in 49 straight starts was snapped thanks to a bogus call from the home plate umpire Brian Gorman.
Baltimore pitching had hit two Sox players in as many days; the Gooch in the hip in Sunday nights contest and then AJ on the elbow on Monday. After no warning was issued to protect the Sox hitters, Buehrle took matters in his own hands and nearly threw one behind the left handed B.J. Surhoff, hitting him in the back. Gorman wasted no time in ejecting Buehrle without any warning whatsoever, effectively ending his unbelievable streak. Now, there were 2 outs in the inning when Surhoff was hit, but it was a 1 run ballgame with Sosa on 1st and the Sox holding the lead. Although Surhoff had been 2-2 in the game off Buehrle, that does not seem like the prime situation to go after a guy. I'm not saying that it wasn't intentional, I'm just saying it didn't seem to be an obvious purpose pitch considering the situation.

The Shingo Takatsu era on the SouthSide officially came to an end Monday as the Sox granted him his unconditional release. If there is any guy you should pull for to be picked up by another team and succeed, its Shingo. Without him last year the Sox might not have contended the entire season, considering the only other option to close was a washed up Billy Koch. Though he didn't speak english, you never heard anything about him being unhappy about losing his spot as the Sox closer early on this season.

Elsewhere in baseball; The Twins have fallen so far that their 54-51 record is only one game better than the Scrubs(53-52). Minnesota is now in 3rd place in the Central, a half game behind Cleveland and 15.5 behind the Sox. The scribes in Bristol that picked them to win it all must be crying a river.

Rafael Palmeiro was suspended 10 days by MLB for violating the leagues substance abuse policy. This is the same Raffy Palmeiro that testified under oath before Congress on St. Patty's Day that he had never in his life ingested a performance enhancing drug of any kind. It's funny how some people used to say that the difference in his body size the last few years compared to when he played for the Scrubs could be contributed completely to maturation.
A situation like this makes one appreciate the career of Frank Thomas that much more. Here is a guy who was huge to begin with; he played college football at Auburn, and in his career has amassed 448 HR's, 447 doubles, 1465 RBI, and a .307 career avg, all without the benefit of steroids. It kills me that he isn't going to be able to be a larger part of this magical season. He deserves to be. Without a doubt he sould be a first ballot HOF'er more so than Palmeiro should be. Be damned with the minor squabbles he's had during his career. It's too commonplace among today's professional athletes to hold against one player. Hey, I never remember Frank holding out 1 year into a 7-year contract! (I'm not sure that a holdout is even possible in MLB, I'm just making a point)