Friday, May 13, 2005

The curious White Sox

Somebody please explain the Chicago White Sox to me.
They're trying to win ballgames with the same smoke-and-mirrors approach of the Indians, relying on an offense with little star power, a largely young starting rotation, and an improved bullpen.
The difference is, while the Indians grand plan has largely beared no fruit in the first six weeks of the season, the White Sox have sprouted an orange grove.
Entering play tonight, they are a major-league best 26-9. Last night, they beat another first-place team, the Orioles, 3-2.
Jon Garland, last night's winning pitcher, is having the same kind of breakout season Cleveland's Jake Westbrook had last year. Maybe better. He's 7-0, treading in early Cy Young Award candidacy.
Baseball pundits are convinced the White Sox can't keep this pace up. They say they don't have the offense, that they can't compensate for the off-season losses of Carlos Lee and Magglio Ordonez all season. They say they can't count on Frank Thomas to get (or stay) healthy. They are convinced Chicago's pitching has deficiencies, and at some point, they will be exploited.
But it's May 13. the season's seventh week begins Sunday, and the White Sox show no signs of cooling off. Even if they hit a mediocre stretch later on, the Sox might have so thoroughly buried the rest of the division by then (save possibly Minnesota), that it might not matter.
Baseball yakkers also point to Chicago's unearthly 14-3 records in one-run games. They say no team can dominate in one-run games like that for an entire season. But that's one of the quirks of the game. Some teams, in some years, win a bunch of close games. If anything, the Sox' ability to win one-run games is a testament to their pitching, in particular, their back-end bullpen trio of Damaso Marte, Dustin Hermanson and Shingo Takatsu. Manager Ozzie Guillen essentially has three closers to work with.
The offense gets the pitching a lead, be it one, five, or 10 runs, and the pitching protects it. Nearly every night.
The Indians are coming off a 5-4 road trip through Minnesota, Texas and Los Angeles. But even if the Cleveland offense continues to show signs of life, Tribe fans would be best advised to start looking at the wild card race now. Catching Chicago is going to be very difficult.

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