ABOUT DAMN TIME May 13 postgamer

[Dumpjerry]

Finally. A sweep of the Perpetual losers!

[thomas35forever]

[Tragg]

👍👍👍

[HomeFish]

Sox beat the Twins this week pretty much every way you can. They beat 'em in a blowout, they beat 'em in a 13-8 slugfest, they beat 'em in a close 4-2 game. The Sox mashed the ball, they did not let defensive miscues derail them, and Sox pitchers got out of countless jams (some of their own creation). The Sox will be in first place for at least another 2 days, and hopefully this kid making his MLB debut for the Mariners tonight can take care of the Indians.

The Twins are 10.0 games back and Kansas City has lost 11 straight.

[voodoochile]

Mercedes and Hendriks and Hamilton... oh my!!!

I love this team... I’m actually emotional typing this post

I seem to recall reading a stat a few years ago that teams which are both 10 games under and 10 games back at the same time in any given season are highly unlikely to make the playoffs. Anyone confirm or remember this? Right now Twinkie’s are at that magic mark..

That’s the closer we thought we were getting.

Go Mariners!

[voodoochile]

Oh and one more thing... guess which team currently has the best record in MLB?

[ChiTownTrojan]

I’m disappointed the thread title isn’t “Crappiest perpetual losers.”

[JazzyCyclist]

Good teams find a way to win games like this. Loved Yermin’s 2-strike hitting on that slider through the shadows. Loved Hamilton’s gap-to-gap break and speed. Loved Lynn’s bulldog mentality with almost nothing left in the tank. Loved Tim’s steadiness as the undisputed leader of the IF. Loved Hendricks’ guttiness and guile. Loved TLR’s bullpen management for this entire series. This team plays with a mission and a plan. And they play real baseball. Go Go Sox!

[Lipman 1]

Hamilton has shown out the last few games, nice to see. His defense balanced out the somewhat poor effort elsewhere. (Really? ANOTHER catcher's interference????)

My God, Pineda looks bigger than Colon, Wells or Sabathia! Like the dugout used to yell out at the Tigers Mickey Lolich, "Hey...one man to a pair of pants out there!!"

One of the few times with the game on the line Hendriks looked really sharp with no drama.

Now at least get a split with the Royals...I mean the law of averages says they've got to win SOMETIME. (Wish they had won today though...)

[JazzyCyclist]

I’m disappointed the thread title isn’t “Crappiest perpetual losers.”

The Twins are crappy. They are perpetual losers.

[LITTLE NELL]

Hamilton has shown out the last few games, nice to see. His defense balanced out the somewhat poor effort elsewhere. (Really? ANOTHER catcher's interference????)

My God, Pineda looks bigger than Colon, Wells or Sabathia! Like the dugout used to yell out at the Tigers Mickey Lolich, "Hey...one man to a pair of pants out there!!"

One of the few times with the game on the line Hendriks looked really sharp with no drama.

Now at least get a split with the Royals...I mean the law of averages says they've got to win SOMETIME. (Wish they had won today though...)

The hell with the split, take at least 3.

[Chez]

I was happy to see TLR put Ruiz in a high pressure situation. He's earned it. While Ruiz may not be quite ready to enter the circle of trust, he's an interesting option if Marshall continues to struggle.

[shingo10]

Absolutely love when TA sits on the first pitch of the game (for the Sox). Think we're 2-0 this year when he hits one out to start it off. Boston being the other time. He also bailed Moncada out by hanging on to the pop-up in the 8th. Good grief they need practice on how to handle pop-ups...all is well that end's well though. Great pinch hit by Mercedes. Great button pushing from TLR this series. Let's kick KC while they're down.

[voodoochile]

I was happy to see TLR put Ruiz in a high pressure situation. He's earned it. While Ruiz may not be quite ready to enter the circle of trust, he's an interesting option if Marshall continues to struggle.

Was his third straight game too. He might have cracked a bit under the additional stress, but maybe the Twinkies just got familiar. Pitches they hit weren’t horrible and they looked like they had an idea what to look for.

[TDog]

What made this game difficult was the mistakes.What made this game so satisfying was overcoming the mistakes.

The error by Lamb at first proved inconsequential other than making Lynn work harder and contributing to turning over the lineup. The battery mistakes, ANOTHER catcher's interference, but especially the two-out wild pitch third strike to load the bases, the Lynn error (which might not have been an error with Abreu at first) not only lost Lynn's shutout but ramped up the pressure on him to force him out of the game early. You can probably add Collins striking out with runners on first and third with one out. The Sox were set up for two small-ball runs

Without the mistakes, you have Lynn going at least seven, maybe more, but the Twins hitters get very good at bats. Pneda matches up well against the Sox, and it's a better lineup with Lamb. Abreu probably needed a day off, but you needed him out of the lineup. And, really, you needed Lynn to go deep into to the game because the bullpen didn't figure to have enough to cover a small lead. Obviously Hendriks is the bullpen hero, coming in with two on and one out in the eighth and facing the top of the lineup for five outs after a long inning the night before. But this game hinged on Foster, setting down the Twins, shutting down their apparent momentum, wit a tenuous-feeling one-run lead. Ruiz couldn't get the job done, but I'm not sure if that was overwork or not being in his more common pitching-with-a-big-lead mode. I honestly never know what to expect with Crochet, and Hendriks was there to pick him up after the two walks.

There are days and nights with Lynn on the mound and a more rested bullpen when the home runs might have been enough -- Anderson laying in the weeks to take Peneda's first pitch deep and Lamb beating Pineda justifying his start. But it was Vaughn rifling the first pitch from the Twins bullpen into left to give the Sox a two-run lead and Mercedes hitting singling on a two-strike two-out slider to give the Sox a two-run lead that proved the difference. Vaughn proving himself a professional hitter. Mercedes continues to impress, even as he's seeing fewer fast balls in the strike zone.

Among the biggest moments of the game was hen Rogers pitched around Vaughn, recognizing the danger and preferring to face Collins hitting left-handed. Instead of bringing in Grandal to pinch-hit, which he would Baldelli might be expecting, La Russa goes to his professional hitter off the bench, who even hard-throwing relievers are attacking with off-speed pitches.

The majors' best run differential notwithstanding, its winning the close games that marks winning teams. There really hasn't been enough of that. Maybe losing a few games early due to mistakes helped this team work around the mistakes today, as if it was part of its character development. It doesn't often work that way, especially for teams that lose two two hitters they were counting on, one with a Gold Glove up the middle. In close losses, the White Sox weren't scoring against the opposing bullpens. I'm sort of feeling, and I hope I don't have reason to lose that feeling in the coming months, that Hendriks turned the corner as a dominant closer in his long inning last night and Vaughn turned the corner as a major league hitter this week, not simply with his first home run, but with a good fundamental approach to drive in a needed run in the sixth.

I've written it before, but I am quite enjoying the character of this team.