*Official* 5/18 The Dirty Dozen; Angels-12 Sox-9

[Lip Man 1]

4th time this year the Sox have scored six runs or more...and lost.

This game was lost when Blanton allowed 11 hits AND two walks in 4.1 innings...and the Sox only scored four times. They easily could have scored six or seven.

Nate Jones...couldn't lose last season...can't win this year.

Speaking of which if anybody knows what the hell happened to him and Veal please contact Robin Ventura.

Typical Sox luck Dunn finally gets going...then has to leave with back spasms. Shouldn't be a big deal but then the appendectomy wasn't supposed to have been an issue either.

Win the series tomorrow.

Lip

[Tragg]

Ventura is such an amateur.
Puts in Veal fresh from the minors in a high leverage 7th inning situation and then compounds the damage by letting him give up several more runs, and then clowns again by bringing him back in the 8th.
Wells hits for Rios, but, Dewayne Wise bats. Wise, who shouldn't be on the roster, is his lead-off hitter (yea, I know, he has no options left...my god!).

[DickAllen72]

Originally Posted by Tragg

Ventura is such an amateur.
Puts in Veal fresh from the minors in a high leverage 7th inning situation and then compounds the damage by letting him give up several more runs, and then clowns again by bringing him back in the 8th.
Wells hits for Rios, but, Dewayne Wise bats.

Pretty much sums it up.

[kittle42]

6 people cared enough to comment. I'm number 7.

White Sox Basbeall 2013: Even the Hardcores Don't Give a Crap.

[JB98]

Once you get past Reed, Crain and Thornton, the bullpen thins out pretty quickly.

Some other guys down there need to start pulling their weight. Jones and Lindstrom have been major disappointments this year. Veal looks like the AAA pitcher he's always been. I think he just had a hot streak at the end of last year. That was a mirage.

It will be interesting to see what they do when Danks comes back. Maybe send Santiago back to the bullpen as the second lefty?

I'm still not sure whether the Sox are better off with Santiago or Axelrod in the rotation. Santiago, obviously, provides more upside. He can dominate a lineup on certain days. He also has days like today where he loses the strike zone entirely, gets knocked out early, and then the whole bullpen has to pitch.

Axelrod isn't going to dominate anybody, but he provides a lot more predictability with his performance. He'll get you to the sixth inning every time.

It comes down to what they value in a starter and how they want to set the bullpen up. Right now, they've got three relievers they can trust. Sure would be nice to make that four or five.

[tebman]

No Pick to Click winner yet. No matter, the random Totally Biased Game Recap is there anyway.

Donnie Veal, indeed!

Edit: PTC has been chosen and added to the TBGR.

[Lip Man 1]

JB:

If I had to guess I'd say Danks returns to the rotation next weekend, Santiago goes to the bullpen...Veal gets sent back to Charlotte or released.

Lip

[Soxman219]

At least they came back a little. They didn't quit. I'm surprised how bad the Angels are so far.

[Dick Allen]

Bullpen was bullcrap today, giving up 9 runs. End of story.

[LITTLE NELL]

Hate to lose when we get 9 runs and 17 hits.
As Lip said; Come back and win the series tomorrow.

[TDog]

Originally Posted by thomas35forever

Welp, it appears the 2007 Sox have returned: only being able to do one thing right at a time.

I don't know where you get 2007. Saturday's game gave me a 1977 flashback. And, really, this team is 19-22, one game off of last year's 20-21 record at this point. The 2007 White Sox were 22-19.

For whatever reason, Santiago seemed to be pitching better when the game was scoreless. Maybe he tired coinciding with the White Sox scoring. Fans complain about sluggish offense putting too much pressure on pitchers, but I wonder if Santiago relaxed in the fourth, not having the pressure pitching in a scoreless game. As Yogi Berra once said (a week after Tom Poquette was quoted as saying it in The Sporting News, 90 percent of this game is half mental.

There is a tendency to look at each game as if it defines the season and the team. Major league managers don't think only of single day's game when they manage. They manage in a bigger context.

Jones really has nasty stuff, but has been having trouble locating the strike zone this season. His biggest trouble has come in after returning to start another inning. His first two losses, two have come in the 10th after pitching an easy ninth. Bringing him in with the bases loaded and one out with a two-run lead seemed rather strange, but it forced him to throw strikes. He again had problems in his second inning but stayed in for an easy third. He may have been tiring in his fourth when Ventura brought in Veal.. I don't know if Jones pitching into four innings and Veal coming in was to save the bullpen from being overworked or if it was to stretch out Jones while resting other relievers. For this bullpen to be as strong as it can be, Jones is going to need to be able to throw strikes and pitch in multiple innings.

Veal probably would have finished the game if the Sox hadn't make it close. Veal probably only started the ninth because Lindstrom wasn't warmed up.

Sometimes when pitchers stay out to take one for the team, as it were, it is because they are about to be sent down or cut. You get innings out of a pitcher you won't have to worry about tiring. I don't know if that was the case with either Jones or Veal. Jones has such awesome stuff. He really looks like he could be a potential closer.

I don't think this game is the microcosm of the season some are making it out to be, any more than the Tigers behind their three best starters losing the first two of three in Arlington, Texas, where the Sox won two of three on the last roadtrip, is a microcosm of their season. The Sox could have won if they had pitched better. The Sox could have won if they had scored more of the runners they got on base.

Ultimately, I think the White Sox lost because Santiago couldn't go deeper into the game. It seems obvious that resting the bullpen was a priority Saturday, although no one really knows what Ventura knows about the state of the bullpen, and outside of the coaches and bullpen, no one really should. But it looks to me like Saturday for the White Sox to win, Santiago needed to be more than a three-inning pitcher.