Posts tagged ‘First Place’

We are a little over a third of the way through the season and while the White Sox may be in first place with a record of 30-26, something is clearly missing. That would be an offense. Despite phenomenal pitching, rivaling any staff in the majors, the Sox struggled through a four game set in Tampa. After another quality start fell by the way side, Ozzie blew up about the offense. Guillen is not happy about the veterans’ bats continuing to slump and urged Kenny to “fix it” by Tuesday or he will make drastic changes to the lineup.

It is hard to argue with Ozzie here as the Sox have scored less than 3 runs a game since the eight game winning streak. One of the unique things about the game of the baseball is the ups and downs from series to series. The Sox went on the winning streak and fans were ready to print playoff tickets and a week later some are on the ledge. Obviously any Sox fan in March would gladly have taken our position in the standings heading into June, but the homerun or nothing offense is raising cause for concern. This has been going on for a year and a half and at some point the offensive struggles are more than just a slump. Sluggers Jim Thome, Paul Konerko and Nick Swisher are all hitting under .215 and the team has yet to show the ability to manufacture runs.

In fact, Ozzie’s club is now 3-15 in games where they fail to hit the long ball. A far cry from the team that went wire to wire in 2005 who relied on the homerun, but could score by running, bunting men over and timely hitting. The Sox left twenty six men on base in the three consecutive losses to the Rays and could not get a sacrifice bunt down or the two out hit when they needed it. What has become increasingly frustrating is when the Sox put the first two men on base and promptly strand them. The sox are dead last in the AL with runners in scoring position and two outs, hitting an anemic .177. You cannot continue to squander great pitching performances from Javy Vazquez and company and hope to remain in the race in September.

It is not all doom and gloom for the offense, however, the Rays rotation has been best home era in the AL and some credit should be given to the emerging young team in first place in the East. Orlando Cabrera is showing signs of the player Jon Garland was traded for, hitting .291 the last 13 games and raised his batting average to .241 after starting off ice cold to begin the season. Then of course, there is Thee Carlos Quentin who is quickly becoming a superstar and is looking like a Kenny Williams heist. Quentin has carried the Sox offense, trailing only Josh Hamilton in homeruns and runs batted in.

The question is will the middle of the order around Quentin and Dye start to produce? We don’t know the answer to that, but if they do, this team is going to do some serious damage. Maybe some much needed home cooking is in order as the Sox play 17 games at US Cellular in June, including the next seven starting with Kansas City Tuesday. It is time for the Sox bats to start producing and give these starters some much needed help.