Posts tagged ‘Nick Swisher’

Clayton Richard. Well, at least for tonight.

There was wild speculation who would be taking the mound tonight. There were a few murmurs about Aaron Poreda and his blazing fastball, but he is still in AA and has yet to master a secondary pitch. Lance Broadway was optioned to Charlotte for bullpen help in Oakland and could not be recalled until 10 days had passed. Ozzie decided Clayton would be the man, though he hardly gave him a ringing endorsement: “Richard. That’s it. Don’t ask me why. Richard,” Guillen said. “Richard’s the pitcher [Tuesday], and hopefully this time he does better.”

He had shown promise in previous starts, but was hit hard the second and third time through the order. Opposing batters were hitting .346 their second look and an astronomical .667 the third time. Clayton backed up that solid inning of work in Oakland, Sunday with a huge performance tonight. Matched up against a future CY Young candidate in Felix Hernandez, the rookie had his work cut out for him and he answered the bell. The Mariners put the heat on early with a single by Cairo after Ichiro reached on Clayton’s throwing error, but he worked his way out of trouble. Swisher picked up his young pitcher with a great on a hard grounder to first, stepping on the bag and fired home to beat Ichiro for a double play. He worked a 1-2-3 second and the offense would give him the only run he would need when Griffey hit a sac fly to score Thome, who led off the inning with a double. Richard was not spectacular, but he showed good life on his fastball on his way to six shutout innings and his first Major League win.

What does that mean for the 5th starter spot from here on out? Maybe nothing as the Sox have the next three Thursdays off that could allow Ozzie to skip this spot in the rotation in the upcoming weeks. Even if we have to use a five man rotation Broadway and Richard have not done anything recall the nightmare of the 5th starter of years passed. There will be no Arnie Munoz or Felix Diaz taking the ball and sending Sox fans running for cover. Lance Broadway battled his way to a win last time out and did not take his demotion to heart as he won in Charlotte tonight behind five strikeouts in 6.2 innings.

The Sox remain in first place and look like they may be playing their best baseball of the season. If not for a bullpen collapse in Oakland in the first game of the season, they would be riding an 8 game winning streak. They extend their high water mark to 19 games above five hundred and maintain their one game lead in the division. It is encouraging to see the offense keep hitting the ball hard coming home from Oakland avoid scoring droughts that plagued the lineup earlier this season following high scoring games. Swisher especially, who has homered in back to back nights.

As the Sox welcome in the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend, the Twins head out on a fourteen game road trip, with the first eleven on the west coast. The division could very well be decided in the next three weeks as for the first time all season, it seems like the offense and rotation are hot at the same time.

Anybody who’s ever watched a White Sox-Twins game in the HHH Metrodome knows what it means to stand on the side of the road as a horrific car crash you were able to predict 20 minutes beforehand unfolds in agonizing slow motion directly in front of you.

Too reactionary?

It’s one game on July 31, but it sure felt like a lot more. It always does when you’re playing the Twins and the type of lunatic scenarios like the one which unfolded in the 7th inning of tonight’s game help spark a meltdown that would make the China Syndrome seem like a minor slip-up. After a series like this you can’t do a whole lot other than just tip the cap and sigh that, no matter what the stakes or situation, the Twins don’t quit. That was evidenced when their manager threw a 100% undiluted hissy fit and got himself thrown from the game over a play in which no out was recorded, no runs were scored, and ultimately the batter in question reached first base anyway.

After stalling the Twins on Wednesday behind a sharp performance from Gavin Floyd and key power hitting from Carlos Quentin and Alexei Ramirez, the Sox were getting exactly what they needed from John Danks heading into the bottom of the 5th inning, and piecing together some timely hits for a 4-0 lead. You may recall that on Tuesday this exact same script was unfolding while left-hander Clayton Richard was on the hill. Thursday’s performance had an identical ending.

The key sequence in tonight’s game came in the bottom half of the 7th inning, with an incorrect “swing” call on Denard Span’s bunt attempt as he was hit by an inside pitch. The misjudgment was all it took to set off the raging mound of fury that is Ron Gardenhire. After futile efforts to plead his case gave way to an incoherent ramble of profanities, he punctuated the performance by tossing his cap in disgust; by this point the Twins faithful were sufficiently motivated to litter their blessed little FieldTurf with caps and balls, triggering Ozzie Guillen’s more primal instincts as his instantly recalled his team to the dugout and got into more than one verbal spat with fans hanging just over the first-base line. Ordinarily I would just sit back and wait for order to be restored in a situation like this. “Both teams are letting off a lot of steam but things will settle back in,” I’d tell myself. Not against the Twins. Not now, and not the seemingly 72 other times in the last five years when s&*t like this has routinely happened to presage a Twin comeback in a game the Sox absolutely had to win. I muttered to nobody in particular, “Minnesota’s gonna score at least 3 runs this inning.”

They scored 4.

The Sox closed back within 7-6 on a Jermaine Dye homer before the weakest links of what is now undeniably a fading bullpen allowed three more runs (aided in no small part by the fact that Nick Swisher cannot play first base. You want to know ultimately why I oppose benching Paul Konerko? The reason was on display tonight with Swish’s attempt to show “range” on the right side of the infield. Does he think he gets extra points for falling down on his rear end after failing to catch the ball?).

It was gonna take a real whopper in tonight’s game to turn the news that the Sox acquired Ken Griffey, Jr. into an afterthought, but (as they always do) the Twins and their voodoo-powered ballpark didn’t disappoint. The Sox can do two things for this point on: dwell on two blown leads in three nights against the Twins, or turn their attention to beating the Royals. I’d love to be able to say confidently what might happen next, but at this point I think everybody knows what a pointless declaration that would be.