Results tagged ‘ Edwin Jackson ’

6/4 – Game 2 vs. Tigers

Over the course of one hundred sixty-two games there is bound to be a heartbreak or two. Or seven. Or ten. You never know, but there are going to be some. Tonight was just one of those games.

Any time Justin Verlander takes the mound you know it’s going to be a difficult battle. With an ERA of 3.12 it should be obvious that it will be tough. And it was. Much like Mark Buehrle yesterday, Verlander really only made one mistake: Gordon Beckham’s two-run home run in the fifth inning. Verlander stuck around until the eighth inning, still dealing, and then Jose Valverde came on in the ninth. Edwin Jackson had a decent outing himself, but a home run by Brennen Boesch in the top of the first inning sort of got things started at an awkward pace.

The usually reliable Jesse Crain gave up a two-run home run to Miguel Cabrera in the top of the ninth inning but that will happen when Cabrera is up to bat. The man is a professional ballplayer and he’s at the top of the Silver Slugger categories (batting average, home runs, runs batted in) year after year. I would rather be burned by a big flame than a little wimpy one. *coughCasperWellscough*

Crain will not earn any points for his appearance tonight. Chris Sale, who was in the game before Crain, and Will Ohman, who entered afterwards, will  earn points – two each, to be exact. It’s rare that Jesse Crain lets us down. He’s only done it one or two times this year, not counting tonight, that I can remember. This far into the year I think that’s still a pretty good ratio of clutch situations to let-downs.

I’m glad to see that after a rough start to his year Will Ohman has turned it around. We now have a couple left-handers out in that bullpen that we can go to. I’m seeing Ohman more as a specialist throughout the remainder of the season and Chris Sale as long man/he’s-just-a-left-handed-pitcher man. Left-handers are highly coveted in baseball and we’ve got a couple of good ones on our hands.

Adam Dunn continued his struggles tonight, striking out another three times. Frank Thomas said in an interview with Boers and Bernstein on The Score (a sports radio station here in Chicago) that he “knew this was going to happen. You play outfield or first base your whole career and then you switch to at-bat by at-bat, it’s going to take a while to adjust.” Big Hurt also said that he should turn it around this month and we should start to see Adam Dunn-like numbers again. The guy knows his stuff so hopefully that’s true.

Alexei Ramirez was two-for-four in the game today so he’s still swinging a hot bat. He should smack everyone in the leg with it, maybe some of his luck will rub off. Or bruise off? Bruise off sounds pretty cool so we’ll go with that.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s game as Jake Peavy (2-0, 3.24) will take on Brad Penny (4-4, 4.72) at 1:05 pm. For whatever reason this pitching matchup looks really good to me. I’ve always been a fan of Brad Penny and with Peavy on the mound for us the two should make for a fantastic ballgame.

Go Sox!!

6/3 – Game 1 vs. Tigers

It seems like forever since we’ve been at home. It’s good to be back, I gotta tell you. It’s also good to have The Duke of Buehrl on the mound.

Buehrle pitched seven innings and really only had one mistake – that three-run home run off the bat of Casper Wells in the top of the fifth inning. Other than that, this outing was arguably his best of the year.

Carlos Quentin, Brent Lillibridge, and Juan Pierre all hit home runs. (It’s 2:26 am as I’m writing this so I apologize for it not being as thorough as usual. I’ve been at the Home School Conference the past two days and I have to go again in four hours so my mind is in other places :P That and yesterday’s off-day threw me off a little bit.)

Two points for Bruney and Thornton, three points for Santos for reaching double-digits in saves.

Good way to start off a series! We were a little more dependent on the home run than I wanted us to be but, with a team like this, that will happen some times. As long as we win it doesn’t matter.

I like sharing funny things that Ed and DJ say and I got one from tonight. Miguel Cabrera reached first base on a single and started removing his equipment

DJ: He has a lot of equipment to take off. Shin guard, elbow guard…

Ed: Right Guard.

DJ: Right Guard? You’ve been getting a little closer to him than I have…

Hilarious. I love it.

Oh! And remember that thing that I teased a few weeks ago? That I said was coming and is insanely awesome? Well, it’ll be here on Monday. I’ll be sure to take some pictures for you to see. I’m so excited about it!

Game two of this series is tomorrow – Justin Verlander  (5-3, 3.12) will take on Edwin Jackson (4-5, 4.63).

I’m so tired.

Go Sox!!

5/28 – Game 3 @ Blue Jays

Well, I’ve had enough time to recuperate after this loss and I’m ready to blog about it now.

It was an excellent fight through all fourteen innings in Toronto. We battled as much as we could, our bullpen (for the most part) held us in there… it just came down to one pitch. Corey Patterson launched a Gavin Floyd fastball into the right field bullpen for a two-run walk-off home run. The Sox had several chances to score runs but, as Ozzie Guillen pointed out (quite blatantly, actually) the offense just couldn’t execute.

Brent Lillibridge started off the Sox scoring with a home run that drove in Alex Rios (who seems to be moving from second to third on wild pitches quite a lot in this series). Then Alexei Ramirez drove in Brent Morel on a single to tie the game and Adam Dunn struck out to end the inning. The Jays jumped ahead with two runs in the bottom of the third and it stayed that way until the top of the fifth. Juan Pierre led off the inning by reaching first base on an error and moving to second on an Alexei Ramirez ground out. Adam Dunn singled to center field to drive in Pierre as the Sox moved within a run of Toronto. Paul Konerko hit a rocket double that moved Dunn to third, then both Dunn and Konerko scored on an A.J. Pierzynski two-bagger.

The score stayed the same until the bottom of the seventh when, with the bases loaded and the reliable Jesse Crain on the mound, Juan Rivera hit a double off the wall in left field that cleared the bases. Some argue that Juan Pierre had a legitimate chance at catching this ball and upon looking at the replay I agree. Had Pierre not done that stupid little Alfonso Soriano hop and had he not turned his head away from the ball we would’ve gotten out of the inning and probably would have won the game. No biggie, though, cuz in the top of the eighth inning The Bridge scored on a passed ball to bring us within one. An inning later Konerko doubled to score Alexei Ramirez and that’s where the nailbiting began.

The game stayed tied for five innings and both teams had a few opportunities to score. Then yadda yadda Corey Patterson wins and Canada is happy. Hooray Corey.

I’m starting to feel really bad for Adam Dunn. No doubt he came into the season with a lot of pressure on himself to be the big bat in the lineup. Almost two months in he’s leading the Major League’s in strikeouts and is fighting to keep his batting average over .200. My mom, who isn’t that big of a baseball fan, says he has to be really embarrassed. I just don’t know what’s wrong with him. Is it the pressure? Is it the DH? Is it the American League pitching? The ballparks? The uniform? Ozzie? That one hot dog guy? He left his toothbrush in Washington? It has to be something. He’s even changed the color of his bat from plain wood to completely black – he’s doing anything to get out of this rut. The engine is revving but the wheels are stuck in the mud.

Edwin Jackson pitched… well, he pitched. Six and two thirds innings, six runs, one walk, seven strikeouts. Not the best outing for a starting pitcher that we’ve seen and it was completely avoidable. The Blue Jays aren’t even that good of a team so I don’t get why we’re struggling both offensively and on the pitching side.

For the bullpen, Chris Sale and Sergio Santos get two points; Matt Thornton, Jesse Crain, and Gavin Floyd don’t get any points.

Man, I had a lot to say about this game, didn’t I? Huh.

The fourth and final game of this series is tomorrow at 12:07. The still winless John Danks (0-7, 4.34) will go against Ricky Romero (4-4, 2.91).

Can someone – FOR THE LOVE OF MINNIE MINOSO – get Johnny a win!?

Go Sox.

5/27 – Game 2 @ Blue Jays

One positive to take from tonight: Adam Dunn was walked in all four of his plate appearances. While that doesn’t seem like much it is a HUUUUGE adjustment. Watching the Gameday tonight I saw that he wasn’t swinging as much as he usually does and that shows me that he’s trying really hard to turn his season around. Being dropped down to the seven spot in the lineup will probably take some pressure of as well. The look on his face over the past week has been that of a player who is absolutely lost at home plate. I’m proud of the Donkey for being more patient tonight.

There’s a song that the little kids at my church sing that goes like this: “Have patience, have patience, don’t be in such a hurry. When you get impatient, you only start to worry.” I think Adam needs to learn this song and keep singing it to himself.

Buehrle pitched very well tonight but, much like Gavin Floyd on Sunday, he just couldn’t get any run support. Seven innings, three earned runs, three strikeouts, and two walks. A typical Mark Buehrle outing.

Alexei Ramirez and Carlos Quentin had one RBI each, Ramirez brought home Juan Pierre on a sacrifice fly in the third inning and Quentin drove in Adam Dunn on a walk in the fifth inning.

What made all of our hearts skip, though, was what happened in the third inning. Alex Rios’ relay throw to second base hopped up and hit Gordon Beckham square in the eye and Beckham went down immediately. His eye was swelling up after he left the field and X-rays have been done to check for fractures. Apparently the brunt of the ball hit the bone just below the eye and no real damage was done to the eyeball itself. Hopefully Beck is alright and will be able to come back soon. I’ll be praying for a speedy recovery to this scary accident.

Tony Pena pitched an inning of relief and allowed one run so I’m not really sure what to do about it. The Sox were down anyway when he came in to the game… so should I give him one point? None? Let me know what you think.

Edwin Jackson (4-5, 4.26) will go for the Sox tomorrow and Carlos Villanueva (2-0, 1.53) will deal for the Blue Jays.

Stay patient, Donkey.

Go Sox!!

5/16 – Game 1 vs. Rangers

Let me just say that WordPress is one of the main reasons I don’t blog on the site I pay money for a domain name for, and now I have to use it for the blog I was really starting to like. Just an aesthetic thing from my standpoint. I won’t stop blogging, I’ll be here all year, I just don’t really enjoy WordPress.

Anyway!

And what a game to come back to, huh? The Rangers shut us out four to nothing. Apparently someone forgot to tell Colby Lewis that it wasn’t the postseason. A.J. Pierzynski, who always seems to be most productive when the Sox are losing, collected two hits in three at-bats against the Texas right-hander. Two out of the five we could pull out of the air. Lewis was really, really good tonight and when a pitcher is on like that you’re not gonna do much.

The bullpen dominated after Edwin Jackson’s shaky start. Tony Pena, Chris Sale, and Will Ohman only allowed one hit as a collective group. We’re turning into one of the most effective and dangerous bullpens in the league but it’s too bad our starting pitching is starting to go south (and I don’t mean to that side of Chicago). Two points for errebuddy.

Bullpen Points Leaderboard
1. Sergio Santos - 24 points
2. Jesse Crain - 19 points
3. Will Ohman - 16 points
4. Chris Sale - 15 points
5. Matt Thornton - 10 points
5. Tony Pena - 10 points
 Jeff Gray (DFA 5/11/11) - 9 points
I have a new… hmm… well, I don’t know how to describe it without giving away what it is, but IT will be in my possession soon and I can’t wait to share it with you. It will make… things… a lot better and a lot easier – you’ll see why when you see what it is. I could get it as early as tomorrow or as late as Friday the 27th, but definitely on or between those dates. Probably sooner than Friday but I’m rambling now.
The winless John Danks (0-6, 4.50) will take on some kid named Matt Harrison (3-4, 4.35). I’ve never heard of him. That’s a bad sign.
Go Sox!!
EDIT: Above is a prime example of why I don’t like WordPress. It doesn’t separate my paragraphs and that drives me nuts. Can someone help me figure out why it won’t do this?

5/9 – Game 1 @ Angels

Back to back shutouts and three consecutive note-worthy performances out of our starting pitching. This is by far the best we’ve played all season and it’s looking like this is what we’re gonna get for the rest of the year. If that’s the case we’ll finally be watching the team we were waiting for. The offense, defense, starting pitching, and bullpen have all been great for the past week.

Edwin Jackson, after pitching extremely well in his last start but getting screwed over by a fluke no-hitter from a pitcher who’s ERA coming into the game was over 9, earns a win. He went seven innings, allowing four hits while walking one and striking out five. Jackson and Floyd are very similar in that you aren’t sure what you’re going to get out of them when they take the hill but when they’re on they are near unhitable. Thankfully for the Sox both Floyd and Jackson have decided to take their unhitable forms and dominate the faces off of everyone. 
The offense! THE OFFENSE! FINALLY! We are a force to be reckoned with! (I once read that a clear sign of a writer who hasn’t found his voice is the overuse of exclamation marks. Even though I know I have my own voice, I’m gonna take a break from the !’s until my sign-off.) 
Gordon Beckham started off the scoring with a two-run home run in the second inning. Adam Dunn, after singling and moving to second base on a Paul Konerko single, scored on a Carlos Quentin double. Quentin then drove in Alexei on another double to make the score four to nothing in favor of the Sox. Quentin and Ramirez broke out the big sticks in the seventh inning as Alexei hit a lead-off homer and Quentin, three batters later, blasted a three-run shot over the wall in dead center field. 
Chris Sale and Will Ohman pitched the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, and will get two points each for their outings. 
Bullpen Points Leaderboard
1. Sergio Santos - 21 points
1. Jesse Crain - 19 points
3. Will Ohman - 14 points
4. Chris Sale - 13 points
5. Tony Pena - 8 points
5. Matt Thornton - 8 points
7. Jeff Gray - 7 points

THREE wins in a row for the first time this year, I believe. Feels great to be on a run like this even if it is just three games (imagine how the Indians fans feel). Game two of this series will be tomorrow night at 9:10 central time – John Danks (0-5 [*sigh* yes... 0-5...], 3.83) will go against Joel Piniero (1-0, 0.71 [*sigh* yes... 0.71...]). 
Don’t stop now, boys!
GO SOX!!

4/27 – Game 3 @ Yankees

Curse Robinson Cano and his talent.

One piece of good hitting from the New York second baseman was all they needed. Little Debbie Cakes pitched eight fantastic innings of one-run ball, striking out six batters… I just don’t understand it. The guy was 3-6 with a 4.19 ERA when he pitched for us! What gives!? HE’S TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY POUNDS!! 
Wow, sorry about that.

Adam Dunn had a nice run-batted-in for us tonight, so that was cool. He’s being rather productive lately and I’m a big fan of production. I thought all of those foul balls that Pierzynski was fighting off in the ninth inning was going to lead to some sort of production but then I saw Mark Teahen in the on-deck circle and I knew I was going to be disappointed even if he came to bat. I really don’t like Mark Teahen. 
Mariano Rivera has 567 career saves for a reason: he’s the best in the game. You’re not gonna do much off of the guy and when you do you better ask for the baseball cuz it doesn’t happen very often. 
Great inning by Jesse Crain outta the bullpen – he’ll get two points. I’m going to start boldifying the guys who appeared in the game even though I’ll mention them before I give out the points. It’ll just be aesthetically pleasing and a quicker way to see who pitched. 
Bullpen Points Leaderboard
1. Sergio Santos - 15 points
2. Jesse Crain - 10 points
3. Will Ohman - 9 points
4. Chris Sale - 8 points
5. Tony Pena - 5 points
6. Jeff Gray - 4 points

7. Matt Thornton - 3 points 
Are you kidding me? Will Ohman was in there twice and nobody told me? Come on, you guys =P (Oh crud, that’s an emote in a post… I think I can do that. Act casual.)
Because, yet again, I didn’t realize this was a four-game series (does it seem like there are a lot of those so early in the year?), it turns out we are facing Cap’n Crunch tomorrow at 6:05. But we have Edwin Jackson going for us… so… that may be a good thing, I dunno. We’ll see.
Go Sox!!

4/17 – Game 3 vs. Angels

Fellow Sox blogger Catherine over at chisoxblog.mlblogs.com/ put it perfectly when she titled her post “Ick.” That sums up my thoughts as well, Catherine. That sums up my thoughts as well. 


I didn’t catch any of this game which means I’ve missed fourteen innings of Sox baseball this season. I was at my church, dressed up as one of the aliens from Toy Story, putting on a show for an awards ceremony. And it was pretty much awesome.

However, so as not to completely disappoint you, I was playing Strat-o-Matic baseball when I wasn’t on stage. I downloaded a baseball schedule generator and I’m replaying the 2003 season but with only sixteen teams (eight in each league). I’m playing the Cubs-Cardinals series first and Mark Prior completely dominated the Cards in game one of the 2003 season. Twelve strikeouts, three walks, five hits, and one earned run through eight innings. Kyle Farnsworth almost blew the save in the bottom of the ninth inning when he gave a up a lead-off home run to Eli Marrero. The Cubs ended up winning the game 3-2. Kerry Wood and Dan Haren will pitch in the second game of the series.


I do believe that’s the first time I’ve ever mentioned Strat-o-Matic baseball in one of my posts. It was my “big” present for Christmas and I haven’t really played it since February, when the excitement of finally owning the game wore off. I’m a huge fan of MVP Baseball 2004 and 2005 for Gamecube (I’ve played four seasons of a Marlins dynasty in MVP 2004. Don’t ask why I picked the Marlins cuz I don’t know either) but I don’t want to be starting at a screen all the time. I needed something portable, too. So I got Strat-o-Matic for Christmas and I’m just rediscovering it recently and I have no idea why I ever stopped playing it.

I should post more about Strat in the future. (And if you’ve never heard of it, http://www.strat-o-matic.com/products/baseball. It’s amazing.) 

Oh! The Sox lost 4-2 to Dan Haren. The Angels bullpen collected three holds and a save, so hats off to them. Jesse Crain struck out four batters out of the Sox ‘pen – two points for him.

The Sox are headed to Tampa to play another four-game series against the Rays. Edwin Jackson (2-0, 2.89) will pitch against David Price (1-2, 3.92). 

Bullpen Points Leaderboard
1. Sergio Santos - 8 points
2. Jesse Crain - 7 points
3. Will Ohman - 5 points
3. Chris Sale - 5 points
3. Tony Pena - 5 points
4. Jeff Gray - 2 points

Even though we can’t get our act together lately, I still love this team.
Go Sox!!
(What’s going on with the typeface? Notice how it just changes after the Strat-o-Matic link? Strange.)

4/12 – Game 2 vs. A’s

See that? As soon as we get Adam Dunn back in the lineup we come away with an epic win. Adam Dunn’s presence = Epic Win. 

Since the beginning of the season I’ve posted “I love this team” as my Facebook status four times, and it is games like this that merit yet another posting of that status. Edwin Jackson had his first shaky start of the year but it was alright, our bullpen held us in it. 
Alexei Ramirez started off and ended the scoring, hitting a 3-run tater in the second inning and the walk-off bomb in the tenth. Paul Konerko and Juan Pierre each drove in one run, so everyone is getting the job done.
What’s so nice about this lineup is that you don’t necessarily need to count on one guy to drive in all of the runs. Adam Dunn? Sure. Konerko? Yeah, probably. Quentin? Sometimes. But the guys like Morel and Pierre and even Mark Teahen are driving in runs. Another team that has the same kind of lineup reliability is the Milwaukee Brewers. Other than that, I can’t really think of a team that is dangerous one through nine. The Red Sox are pretty good on paper but they haven’t really executed so far this year. The Sox and the Brewers are the only teams (at the moment) who can be comfortable with any of their players at the plate. 
Ohman, Pena, Santos, and Sale all made appearances out of the bullpen. Pena somehow blew a save in the sixth inning so he’ll only get one point, everyone else gets two. Sergio Santos is really impressing me this season. In five games he’s pitched 7.1 innings, given up five hits, surrendered three walks, but has struck out nine and has an ERA of 0. Opponents are hitting .185 against him! He was pretty solid last season and it looks as though he’s continuing that into this 2011 campaign. I hope he, Crain, and Sale can continue to be the guys we can count in the late innings. I have no clue what is wrong with Thornton right now but he just can’t seem to gain command of his pitches. Maybe being the official closer is too much for him? Who knows, he just doesn’t have “it” right now. 
1:05 start time for tomorrow’s game. In The Battle of the Left-Handers, John Danks (0-1, 4.50) will face Brett Anderson (0-1, 1.93). Danks, much like Thornton, hasn’t really found his groove yet. He pitched well enough against Cleveland but unfortunately Justin Masterson wanted to show the Sox the Indians were for real. Then the Rays beat him up for four runs over six innings in that Dan Johnson “I’ll Suddenly be a Hero” game. Ugh.
Bullpen Points Leaderboard
1. Sergio Santos - 6 points
2. Matt Thornton - 5 points
2. Jesse Crain - 5 points
2. Will Ohman - 5 points
2. Chris Sale - 5 points
3. Tony Pena - 3 points

Go Sox!!

4/7 – Game 1 vs. Rays

Edwin. Jackson.

During the game I posted “Arizona can have Daniel Hudson. I’ll take this Edwin Jackson any day” as my Facebook status. A couple of my Sox fan friends liked it and that made me smile. When he made his starts for us last season I was thinking to myself “I know we were gonna get Dunn but why would we trade this guy?” And those are my thoughts again so far this year. He was hitting 95 miles per hour with the fastball, his slider or curve or whatever it was had some ridiculous drop on it. Look at this, started here…
Jackson 1.jpg
Ended here
Jackson 2.jpg
That’s pretty much belt to feet right there. Amazing. 

You win ballgames primarily on pitching. Much like how in football defense wins championships, the pitcher is in complete control of the game. I’d much rather have this Edwin Jackson than Adam Dunn. But you won’t hear me complaining that we have both. (Speaking of Dunn, he’s eager to get back ahead of schedule. MLB.com reported he may have been available to pinch hit today and that he wants to be in the lineup tomorrow. We’ll see, Donkey.)
The offense scratched across a few of runs. I’m really glad Alex Rios is heating up. If that 1-2-3-4-5-6 of Pierre, Beckham, Dunn, Rios, Konerko, and Quentin keep hitting like this all season - even if any two of those guys stay hot at any time during the season – this will be a very potent offense. It’s already one of the best in the league but we have a chance to be really good. 
One thing that disappointed me (it was the home opener so I swept most of the mistakes under the rug) was A.J. Pierzynski grounding into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded. In those situations you need to bring home at least two runs. But as I said, home opener, I’ll let it slide.
Sergio Santos did a good job out of the ‘pen. Starting right now, I’m gonna give out Bullpen Points to players who deserve points for a good job out of the bullpen. Leader board will be at the bottom of every post. 
Game two of this three-game series will be tomorrow, John Danks (0-1, 3.00) vs. James Shields (0-1, 2.45). Both guys obviously pitched well enough in their first starts but couldn’t come away with a win. John Danks’ first strike thrown is scheduled for 7:05 tomorrow night. 
—–
1. Sergio Santos – 2 points
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