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The South Side Plunge |
So the White Sox are sucking it up right now. That sucks, but my friends I assure you the worst may be over, but it won’t get much easier.
Why the reason for the slump? Could it be the inconsistent pitching of some of our starters? The blunders of a bullpen? The faltering offense? The manager who many perceive as crazy? We can’t point the finger all we want. We can make all the excuses we need to get us through they day. But the way I look at it, what has happened has happened and we need to look forward? The White Sox need to look forward.
I remember a month ago or so, you would have to fight to the death to defeat the Sox. So what happened? Maybe they’re tired. So let’s take a look, since All Star Break, the Sox have only won two games. One against the Tigers and the other against the Rangers. They are 8 ½ games back from the Tigers for the division and tied for the wild card lead with the Twins, second in the AL central. Oh my oh my.
There is a chance to gain ground next month. They play the Tigers 7 times while they play the Twins six. With the exception of the Yankees and the Blue Jays, they have the Royals and Devil Rays which are must win/sweep series. Let me say every series is a must win series in the month of August. The Tigers get the Yankees next month too, along with the Rangers, Red Sox, Indians and a series against the Twins so they may have problems next month and drop a few. But the Twins are blessed with not such a challenging schedule, and they can very well pass the Tigers up. They are looking really good lately! So we are looking at a full blown race here.
Every team slumps once or twice. The Sox may be slumping now but they need to find a way to change that. They need to help Buerhle find himself again so he can pitch like the All Star he supposedly is. They need to help Vazquez bring his pitching for seven to eight innings not just five. They need to continue working on the bunting, and the fundamentals which helped bring home a title last year. Lately, I feel they have been trying to hitting for power not average. Other than Thome, Konerko, and Dye, everyone should be trying to get on base. Especially Pods and Guch. Pods OBP is .345 and Iguchi is at .349. They are doing their job but Thome needs to hit more. We don’t need to see a home run out of him every time. Just some nice dingers to get the guys in.
The White Sox are hitting home runs when there is no one on base, and they aren’t hitting at all with guys on base. This is a huge problem. Pods isn’t stealing anymore and he needs to. One of the things that the Sox should be doing is hitting more for average. Sure out of the three teams we all have our eye on, they are leading in HRs, stolen bases, and have the least amount of strike outs. However they need to use that small ball that they did last year that made them champs.
And the pitching needs to get better. I can’t believe Garland is doing the best out of everyone right now. But that doesn’t change the fact everyone’s ERA besides Contreras is over 4. It doesn’t change the fact that all the pictures W-L records almost match each other. Something needs to give with pitching and we need to see some better stuff from the bull pen.
Bottom line, the Sox are not out of this. But in order to get it, they are going have to want it, and play like they want it. I know that Sox fans everywhere want it. So Sox, do us a favor and bring home another championship? There is no reason why you can’t. Everyone in America doubted you before, now lets show them why they are wrong again?
JAE
