9-8 Game Thoughts

US Cellular Field is a very friendly ballpark to right handed power hitters. The White Sox lineup is filled with right handed power hitters. Much like the Mariners are built for Safeco, the White Sox are built for US Cellular, and the biggest key to beating them on their own turf is keeping them in the park. Unfortunately, that’s kind of tough to do when you have a left handed fly ball pitcher on the mound who’s struggling with his command. Even though the Sox have been playing pretty badly, we really didn’t have very good odds coming into this one, especially without Bradley in the lineup.

• As I mentioned above, Ryan Rowland-Smith really came into this game with two strikes against him. That being said, he also didn’t pitch very well. He was getting himself into a lot of three ball counts, and he was leaving a whole lot of pitches right over the heart of the plate, and that’s just something you can’t afford to do when you’re already at a disadvantage. The fact that he isn’t really missing any bats or striking anyone out is also disconcerting.
• Sean White is not a good pitcher. He shouldn’t be pitching in close games unless absolutely unavoidable. The sooner Don Wakamatsu learns this, the better off this team will be.
• Because of the fact that we still lost, it’s probably going to be forgotten pretty quickly, but just about the only way that Jose Lopez hitting a go ahead grand slam off of JJ Putz could have been any sweeter is if either Ichiro or Franklin Gutierrez had hit it. Ichiro, because of the comments JJ made about him last year, and Guti, because of the fact that we acquired him in the trade that sent JJ to the Mets. So I guess Mike Carp or Jason Vargas hitting it would have been pretty great too.
• Eric Byrnes is one crazy dude, and I like it.
• Jack Wilson left the game early on with a thumb injury, and while x-rays were negative and it doesn’t appear to be real serious, he’s almost certainly going to miss some time, and Matt Tuiasosopo just isn’t going to cut it as a replacement. The team needs to cut Jesus Colome, and either active Jack Hannahan early or call Josh Wilson up, immediately.
• Fister vs. Danks tomorrow. Oi. Just kidding.