Posts tagged ‘Twins’

Let’s address Irrational Fear #1 right off the bat: everybody breathe. The sun is going to come up tomorrow.

As for the rest of the 2008 AL Central Race, let’s just say the shocking third-act twist has occurred and only if the writer’s are REALLY bold and decide to pen another will the suspense last.

Call me a liar if you must, but the worst I ever felt during this series was actually AFTER the Sox had gotten a 6-1 lead. I couldn’t help but surrender to those thoughts in the deep, dark, nagging corner of my brain that remember all the pain and heartache already inflicted on the Sox over the past seven years inside the Metrodome. I couldn’t put to bed the horrifying thought: “This is what Minnesota does. They lull things down, they spot you runs, but they just nibble and gnaw and scrap and don’t ever go away.” What happpened next? Well, you can read about it here if you like doing the sports equivalent of stabbing out your own eyes while simultaneously punching yourself in the nuts repeatedly.

I wish I could boil it down to something simple, something plain and quantifiable like, “The Twins just have an incredible lineup” or “The Sox have a horrible bullpen” and just leave it at that. But the Twins should’ve rolled in that type of circumstance; instead the combined score over the last two days was 10-8 as the Twins continued to race their way around the HHH basepaths (and got a couple of timely assists from second and third base umpire Alfonso Marquez). And if it were the kind of performance that came from nowhere, from a team clinging desperately to its playoff chances, I could live with that. But this happens routinely, always to the Sox and always at the Metrodome. Of the 8 games the Sox lost in that building this year, five were by two runs or less. Three times, including tonight, they blew leads of four runs or more. Bottom line: if it’s close against the Twins in their home park, pray for the worst, but expect the absolutely f&*kin’ disastrous.

Umpiring Sidenote: I do not subscribe to the theory that any officiating decision can single-handedly change the outcome of a ballgame, no matter how egregious or influential it might seem (Doug Eddings included). So don’t just cop-out and assume a different final outcome (no matter how badly you want to) had Marquez made the correct call on Wednesday and called Carlos Gomez out at second base on the pickoff throw, which is what he was - out. Picked off. Orlando Cabrera had the ball in his glove and his glove on Gomez’s back well ahead of Gomez making any sort of physical contact with the base. Gomez was out. Instead he was called safe, moved up on a walk and scored what went on to be the decisive third run on a ground ball to second. But even if he’s called out, who’s to say Mark Buehrle, suddenly feeling more secure after picking a runner out of scoring position, doesn’t serve up a meatball which Joe Mauer clubs for a three-run homer? So I don’t blame Marquez for the Sox being beaten on Wednesday (or on Thursday, when he called a Denard Span double fair despite the ball landing in foul territory, or when he rung up Nick Swisher for swinging when he quite clearly did not…that latter call was so bad even Twins announcer Bert Blyleven called bulls&*t on it.) Even umpiring that’s bad can’t unilateraly determine how the game plays out. That doesn’t change the fact that Marquez was wrong. Moving on…

The Sox only recourse now is to win the remaining games. They have to pretend Minnesota and it’s Chinese Water Torture offense don’t exist for the next four days. Everything has to be about beating Cleveland tonight, then again on Saturday, then on Sunday. Then, if necessary, 100% focus must turn to beating Detroit on Monday. And, should it come to pass, on Tuesday, they can allow Minnesota to exist again for a possible one-game playoff. If you had to gauge my feelings on the Sox making the postseason…what’s the polar opposite of optimism? Pessimism just doesn’t quite seem to do the trick.

If you love scoreboard watching, wild swings in momentum, the essence of Jim McKay’s “thrill of victory and agony of defeat”, then we here in the AL Central say, “Have we got a division for you!”

In the trailer for what will hopefully be another solid Coen Brothers comedy, Burn After Reading, JK Simmons (Hollywood’s go-to “gruff yet clueless authority figure” actor) instructs his CIA charges: “We don’t really know what anyone is after…report back to me when it…I don’t know…when it makes sense.” That’s how I feel in attempting to recap all the various angles that were in play Tuesday night in two ballparks for two teams that seemed headed in completely opposite directions just 48 hours ago. Now they’re back on the parallel track which is probably going to take them all the way to Game 162 with the issue still in doubt.

One of the key themes for the Sox up to this point in 2008 has been a failure to seal the deal during close, back-and-forth games, the kind of tightly-contested games you have to win the lion’s share of in order to be a championship club. They’ve been miserable at doing so on the road, with three of their last six performances outside Chicago perfectly demonstrating how and why there should be no expectation of an easy cruise to the division title. Then there was the fracas that broke out in Sunday afternoon’s lost cause of a game versus Kansas City, a game where every member of the Sox seemed to retreat with the exception of Ozzie Guillen, who got served his inevitable (and not open to appeal) suspension for post-game honesty.

So that brings us to Tuesday night. On an impossibly muggy evening after two days of constant rain and lightning storms in the thick of summer, Sox starter Gavin Floyd didn’t have the comfort zone he took into his last start at Minnesota, walking Curtis Granderson and throwing a homer to Placido Polanco before recording an out. Down 2-1 in the fifth Floyd lost his control for good, and when the inning ended Detroit led 6-1. Little did we know that the “fun”, such as it was, hadn’t even really started at that point.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest, Scott Baker was running into trouble in the form of Raul Ibanez, who has been to the Twins staff in the first two games of that Seattle series was Justin Morneau was to the Sox last week. At 6-1 Tigers and 4-2 Mariners, with Detroit having broken into an incredibly shaky bullpen by the fifth inning, you’re just hoping both scores hold so no ground is lost in the divisional race.

That’s when Paul Konerko steps up and finally demonstrates how to drill a pitch from Nate Robertson, who’s been nothing short of dreadful against every other team in the league but was on his way to a third-straight dominating effort against the Sox. 6-4. With the Mariners having stretched their lead to 6-3 and threating to add more in the sixth, thoughts dangle that perhaps there’s a game to be gained here, if only you can reach that Tiger pen.

Carlos Quentin built the case for hope a little more with a long fly that scraped past the outfield wall. 6-5. One inning later Alexei Ramirez absolutely ropes one into the Sox bullpen. Tie game, and with Minnesota trying to come back out west, both games have turned into a battle of wills that could have long-lasting ramifications. The innings begin to fade away, one after the other, as that same unreliable Sox bullpen is mounting what might be looked back on as their last stand. Octavio Dotel had a Joba Chamberlin moment in the 10th after striking out Ryan Raburn - and speaking of impressions, right around that same moment 2000 miles away, when Seattle nearly had the game busted wide open, Carlos Gomez pulled his best Torii Hunter impersonation to keep the game within reach. Sparked by the flash of leather, the Twins put four on the board in the top of the eighth for a 7-6 lead. At this point I’ve stopped trying to do some internal divisonal standings math and wondering what’s transpired that these two games began two hours apart yet are on track to finish at the exact same time?

By now the Sox bullpen is drawing the line in the sand and marching bravely toward their doom. Surely it must have occurred to them after the 7th or 8th consecutive scoreless inning, at which point we’re in the 13th on the Southside and Joe Nathan has come in for a five-out save with two on in StarbucksTown; it’s a sad truth that no cavalry will be coming over the hill to save them. Right?

Sure seemed like it when Polanco finally broke the dam against Matt Thornton, who was into his fourth inning of work, with another two-run blast just inside the foul pole for an 8-6 lead. Now here comes Joel Zumaya, who’s been anointed the third Tigers closer in as many weeks, to save the game, help Detroit claw back into the divisional race, and put an exclaimation point on the last three dismal weeks for the Sox.

At least it won’t come at great expense, I think, as I click over with MLB Gameday to see Jose Lopez touched Joe Nathan for double and the M’s are up 8-7. Maybe there’s a little magic left here.

Cabrera singles, Quentin shoots one down the line to put runners at 2nd & 3rd. A cue-ball shot from Jermine Dye rolls towards Edgar Renteria. A run’s gonna score, but there will be two out because Renteria makes this play in his sleep.

Only he doesn’t. It glances off his glove and it’s 8-7 with two-on, one-out. Zumaya overpowers Jim Thome and the last line of defense is Nick Swisher, a guy with many of the same holes in his swing that the aging Big Jim has.

At this point I’ve just sorta surrendered to the lunacy of it all and find myself like Gene Wilder while watching Augustus Gloop get sucked into the chocolate river: “The suspense is terrifying! I hope it lasts!” Which it will, because another quick check shows Justin Morneau is on base with Jason Kubel, already having hit two home runs tonight, due up.

2-1 count on Swisher. Then a high, arching drive into the deepest part of the field. Can The Ballpark Formerly Known as Comiskey hold it? And the whisper comes back, “No”. 10-8 victory.

But wait, there’s more! Putz now is working with the bases loaded and Mike Redmond at the dish while protecting the slimmest of margins. If this were a Sox game, you know Redmond would just do what he always does, swing like a Little Leaguer yet somehow make contact with the ball and send a little grenade into center that falls into the 18-inch zone where neither the second baseman, shortstop, or center fielder have a chance to catch it. But this is Seattle so he lines one to Ichiro to end the game.

Maybe in a few days or weeks both teams will look back on tonight and the outcomes of the respective see-saw affairs as one of “those” moments. But if the Sox drop four of the next five while the Twins take four of five, does it really amound to much? Who can know what’s going to happen day by day around here? All I can say with confidence is that literally everything about tonight’s game countered the notion that the Sox are too lacksaidaiscal to match the high-energy Twins in the race for this Theater of the Absurd known as the AL Central. That was the definition of fighting back out on the field tonight.

Fair warning to all baseball pundits, regardless of team allegiance: he who attempts to declare that he has the AL Central “figured out” does so at his own peril.

Monday’s crucial series opener between the Twins and White Sox, who stood just 2.5 games apart in the standings, did confirm a few things that have long been status quo for anybody who follows the White Sox:

A) The Sox do not play well in domes.
B) The Sox really, really, really don’t play well in the MetroDome.

The 2008 AL Central race has, up to this point, been a complete blueprint for what life will one day look like through the looking glass (or inside the Matrix, take your metaphorical pick). Up is down. Black is white. The guy who’s been on a roll for two straight months and has 9 years of big league experience and a World Series ring gets taken deep by a rookie with a name that would make a good alias for a minor member of Batman’s Rogues Gallery. It’s what happens after everybody has it figured out that counts.

As mentioned in Monday’s episode of the podcast, it wasn’t until after I saw how much the pitching matchup for Monday’s game would “supposedly” favor the Sox that I began to get that gnawing, abysmal feeling in the pit of my stomach that surfaces every time the Sox play a critical game in Minnesota. Coming into this game, Mark Buehrle had been 6-2 with a 1.99 ERA in his last 10 starts. For his career against the Twins he was a stellar 21-11 (his most wins against opponent) and has been one of the few successful Sox pitchers in Minneapolis (10-5 career mark). Opposing him was Kevin Slowey, his dominant run of late June a fading memory as he allowed 15 runs in his last 14 innings to go with a finger injury that pushed back another start. Oh, and did we mention he was 0-2 with a 12.38 ERA against the Sox in two starts this season?

So naturally Buehrle got tagged for a pair of two-run homers by Justin Morneau and Denard Span, two left-handed hitters (lefties had only 3 HR against Mark all season) while Slowey threw a complete game shutout. You decide what it means. All I know is it gives me a lot of comfort seeing as how the deck is now “supposedly” stacked in Minnesota’s favor tomorrow with Glen Perkins matched against Clayton Richard, who’ll be making his second major-league start.

Same teams, same city, same stakes. Different ballpark? All the difference.

All the City Series managed to confirm beyond reproach was the one thing already widely assumed: both Chicago teams are fantastic in their home parks, but something gets lost in translation when they go on the road. How else do you explain Jose Contreras, with the 9-run meltdown at Wrigley, come back six days later and go into the 7th inning against the same lineup in an equally (if not more) hitter-friendly ballpark? Conversely, Ryan Dempster was pounded for 8 runs (7 in one inning) five days after making the Sox look silly…while the Sox bullpen which couldn’t close a screen door last weekend looked like an even better version of the crew that helped win a World Series in 2005. I guess if there is some destiny at work to get the Sox and Cubs into a Crosstown World Series…we better pray the American League wins the All-Star Game.

I said last Friday that I liked the attitude, the sense of urgency coming from the Sox clubhouse after the win at Dodger Stadium on Thursday. They knew what they were coming home to, not just three games that mean infinitely more in the stands than on the field, but three games at home that they needed to have while two teams charging hard in the division kept getting hotter. Nothing changed as the Twins took two of three from the Brewers and and the Tigers swept the Rockies to climb over .500. That’s the true importance of this weekend; sweeping the Cubs was awesome, but picking up a game on the Twins and keeping the Tigers at bay was far more significant in relation to the big picture.

Said big picture really kicks in now, as the Sox welcome supposed divisional heavyweight Cleveland to Comiskey with an opportunity to bury them in the standings, before matchups with Oakland, Kansas City, and Texas to close out the first half. Sweeping an excellent Cubs team that looks like the class of the National League was a nice acheivement, but it will only matter if the Sox take the renewed momentum and start cleaning up where it counts. In 2005, Ozzie told the team “Don’t be happy just to be in the playoffs - win to stay in.” Now would be a good time to say, “Don’t be happy just to be in first place”.

Ozzie Guillen is a loud-mouth, obnoxious, unfiltered, untamed testament to the idea that some things are better left unsaid. We know this, and more hilariously, so does he. And he doesn’t care.

And it seems like every time he explodes, his team follows the lead.

Since Ozzie’s much-discussed “throwing under the bus” of his team, his coaches, his owner, his pet dog, his third-grade teacher, apple pies, small children, and all things that are righteous and wholesome (wait, he stopped after his coaches? Could’ve fooled me the way certain columnists at the Sun-Times grandiosely overhyped the story) his team has not lost, wrapping up a perfect 7-0 homestand with a comeback victory over the Minnesota Twins to earn the sweep and stretch their division lead to 6.5 games with a solid 37-26 mark.

Ozzie’s moment of rampaging truth last Sunday wasn’t intended as a damnation of his player’s or his coaches ability, as many portrayed it. It was just the opposite, his own bleep-infested way of reminding his organization, “Look at us. We’re playing like crap and still lead our division. Congrats on floating above .500 while scoring 2 runs per game guys. You wanna do that, sure we can win 83 games, take what’s turned out to be a weak division before getting swept in the postseason. But we have the potential to do SO MUCH MORE.”

See, if he’d said it like that, nobody would’ve minded. But he’s Ozzie, and Ozzie knows just one speed: full-throttle, unrestrained, unrehearsed, all -BLEEPING- day. The fact that he mostly comes out speaking the simple -BLEEPING- truth eludes most of the talking heads at ESPN as well as their designated henchman at the Sun-Times.

But enough about Ozzie. The Sox just hung 50+ runs in 7 games to announce that they, just like their manager, were getting sick and tired of their own play. Now an important second phase begins, with Detroit, Pittsburgh, Colorado, the LA Dodgers, & Cleveland pieced around the six Crosstown games before the end of the month. Just six of the next 19 games are against teams over .500 - time to really create some separation in this division and let others debate how good/bad/overrated/undervalued it was.

Oh, and one other thing…

Send this man to the All-Star Game.