The White Sox are one of the seven teams that stand between the Yankees and the Wild Card, but the Yankees can pull even with them by winning three of four at the Stadium this week, and can pass them completely with a highly improbable four-game sweep.
The big news for the Sox is the return of Jim Thome, though Thome has yet to find his stroke after two weeks back in the line-up. In fact, three of Thome’s eight hits and five of his nine RBIs since returning came in a single game in which the Sox beat up Colby Lewis for 3 1/3 innings then were held to one hit by Lenny DiNardo the rest of the way. Rather, the White Sox’s two best hitters over the last week have been reserve infielder Alex Cintron (5 for 13, 2B, no walks), and fill-in left fielder Rob Mackowiak (5 for 22 with no walks, but two homers). Indeed, Chicago’s struggles to score continue. Over that last week, the Sox have scored just three runs per game (including exactly three runs in each of their last three games in Toronto), with their only win coming behind eight shutout innings by Javy Vazquez, who will pitch on Wednesday. As the Toaster’s resident Pale Hose fan, Scott Long, reports, during that week, the Sox went 61 straight at-bats without reaching base against a relief pitcher. Of course the Sox took two of three from the Yankees in Chicago three weeks ago.
John Garland starts for the Chisox tonight coming off an ugly outing in which he surrendered six runs to the Twins on five hits and five walks in six innings. That followed another ugly outing in which he gave up four runs on ten hits to the A’s. Before that, however, he had turned in five-straight quality starts, going a minimum of seven innings in each, the last of which was saw him allow ten Yankees to reach base, but only one to score.
The Yankees will counter with Matt DeSalvo, who starts in place of Roger Clemens and his “fatigued groin.” [insert Alex Rodriguez joke here] DeSalvo was sent down prior to the Red Sox series but was able to be recalled without spending the requisite ten days in the minors because he replaces the disabled Doug Mientkiewicz. The Yankees will thus play with a 24-man roster tonight and add a position player (Andy Phillips?) tomorrow. As for DeSalvo, did you realize he’s made four big league starts already? Tossing out his one disaster relief outing, DeSalvo has a very respectable 4.15 ERA as a major league starter, but he’s not been nearly that good. He has walked 13 and struck out just six and has a 1.57 WHIP. Opposing hitters are batting .263/.379/.475 against him, and that’s with a far-below league-average batting average on balls in play of .264.
Gulp. Get well soon, Rocket.
Update: Check out my guest spot on NBC.com’s Fantasy Fix in which I discuss Abreu, Cano, Rodriguez, Giambi, Phelps, Damon, and Mike Mussina, if for no other reason than to see my frighteningly swarthy headshot learing at Tiffany Simons (no, that’s not a wig, they cropped my hair funny, and, yes, I had just shaved a half-hour before that photo).
Chicago White Sox
2007 Record: 25-27 (.481)
2007 Pythagorean Record: 22-30 (.423)
Manager: Ozzie Guillen
General Manager: Kenny Williams
Home Ballpark (2007 Park Factors): U.S. Cellular Field (103/102)
Who’s Replacing Whom?
Jim Thome (DL) replaces Mike Sweeney (minors)
Jerry Owens (minors) replaces Darrin Erstad (DL)
Alex Cintron (bereavement list) replaces Pablo Ozuna (DL)
Toby Hall (DL) replaces Gustavo Molina (minors)
Dewon Day (minors) replaces Andy Sisco (minors)
Ryan Bukvich replaces Mike MacDougald (minors)
Bret Prinz replaces David Aardsma (minors)
25-man Roster:
1B – Paul Konerko (R)
2B – Tadahito Iguchi (R)
SS – Juan Uribe (R)
3B – Joe Crede (R)
C – A.J. Pierzynski (R)
RF – Jermaine Dye (R)
CF – Jerry Owens (L)
LF – Rob Mackowiak (L)
DH – Jim Thome (L)
Bench:
S – Alex Cintron (IF)
R – Luis Terrero (OF)
R – Andy Gonzalez (IF)
R – Toby Hall (C)
Rotation:
R – John Garland
L – Mark Buehrle
R – Javier Vazquez
L – John Danks
R – Jose Contreras
Bullpen:
R – Bobby Jenks
L – Matt Thornton
R – Nick Masset
L – Boone Logan
R – Dewon Day
R- Ryan Bukvich
R – Bret Prinz
15-day DL: L – Scott Podsednik (LF), L – Darin Erstad (CF),
60-day DL: R – Pablo Ozuna (UT)
Typical Lineup:
L – Jerry Owens (CF)
R – Tadahito Iguchi (2B)
L – Jim Thome (L)
R – Jermaine Dye (RF)
R – Paul Konerko (1B)
L – A.J. Pierzynski (C)
R – Joe Crede (3B)
L – Rob MackowiaK (LF)
R – Juan Uribe (SS)
