Saturday, April 10, 2010

Good Pitching Takes You Halfway

With a rotation of two aces in Jake Peavy and Mark Buehrle, two up and comers John Danks and Gavin Floyd, Chicago White Sox fans think they have what it takes to make a run at the division title and a run in the playoffs like 2005. But pitching only takes you so far.

With their typical everyday lineup in today's game against the Minnesota Twins, the White Sox got the pitching they needed, this time with Freddy Garcia going 7 innings and only giving up 2 runs on 3 hits. Of course, walking 5 isn't going to help you in most games, but this time it didn't hurt that much.

What did hurt is that they only managed 6 hits and scored one run. What's scary is that of those 6 hits, 3 were extra base hits and they still only scored 1 run. A 1-8 performance with runners in scoring position will not win you many games, no matter how many runs your starter gives up. In fact, after today's game, the lineup for the White Sox is hitting a combined .186. Going into today's game entirely, the White Sox are hitting only .185 as a team, 2nd to last in the majors. Even the Astros, who have scored 6 runs in 4 games are hitting better. Slugging .304 as a team is going to get you blown out of a lot of games. Of course, it's only 5 games, White Sox fans shouldn't be panicking yet, right?

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