Niiiiice!

Lester, Delcarmen, Timlin, Tavarez.  All the pitchers did their jobs.  Lester didn’t make it easy.  He gave up 6 hits.  He loaded the bases a few times.  But he got himself out of trouble and only gave up 2 runs on 2 sacrifice flies.  Delcarmen and Tavarez each gave up one hit while Timlin pitched ANOTHER perfect 8th inning.

David Ortiz became the first Red Sox hitter to reach 30 homeruns before the All Star break.  The very first.  How cool is that?  And Alex Gonzalez, he of the "do you guys really think he’s that great" criticisms from other fan bases, went 4-4 against Mark Buehrle last night (edited to say that I should have written ‘against White Sox pitching’, but Buehrle was one of the guys we were supposed to be ‘afraid’ of, wasn’t he?)and is now hitting .284.  That isn’t a typo.  Alex Gonzalez, is not only AMAZING in the infield, he’s now hitting .284. 

It was a really well-played game all around.  Once again, the infield looks great, the bats are how (13 hits against Buehrle, McCarthy and Politte – 9 of them coming against the pitcher Ozzie thinks is good enough to be in the All Star Game)  I’d prefer Lester to not keep getting himself into trouble that he has to get out of, but as long as he keeps getting out of it, I’ll take his 4 wins.

I’m interested in how the White Sox announcers reacted to the game last night.  My favorite quote from ‘the other Sox’:  "I’ve made Ozzie look like a jacka ss picking me over [other] guys" – so says Mark Buehrle.  Someone should tell him that Ozzie did that himself, long before Buehrle was brought into the mix.

I looked it up for fun.  White Sox lost two out of three in May to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and they split a four-game series with the Twins.  They also lost three out of four to the Indians going into June.  Of course, they ended June with only 8 losses.  Then again, the Red Sox had 9 losses in June – and the White Sox played one game more than the Red Sox.  What does all this mean?  Not much, I know.  But this was supposed to be the ‘test’ for the Red Sox.  Could they come back and beat the team that swept them in the 2005 ALDS?  Could their rookie hold his own against the big bats of the White Sox?  Would the offense show up against Chicago’s pitching? 

I think the Red Sox answered these questions quite impressively.  🙂

Other baseball notes…Dontrelle Wills hit a grand slam against Jose Lima.  With sympathies to Mets fans, dam I wish I had seen that live!  And a pitching duel?  Against Tampa Bay?  Yanks won, but the Devil Rays are still being pesky.  They love to make things interesting.  Ooh…and Kansas City beat the Blue Jays – anyone see Hillenbrand knock John Buck over at homeplate?  I happened to be watching as it happened.  Funny thing is, the plate was open.  All he had to do was TOUCH the freaking bag and he was safe.  Instead, he plows into Buck and Buck got revenge the best way he could…with his bat.  Nice win, guys.  I’m rooting for the Royals, regardless of what team they play (except the Red Sox!).  (Oh man, and edited to add, thanks to Sports Center, how the heck about John Lackey against the A’s????  What an incredible game that must have been to watch!!!)

Sox on Fox today and we get McAsswipe and Buck.  But on the bright side, we also get Josh Beckett…so I like out chances regardless of who I have to listen to call the game!

Have a great day, folks!