It's those walks. That's what Hawk Harrelson was bemoaning last night. By my count, Hawk talked about walks killing the Sox 6 times from the 8th inning on.
He broke it down and explained how the walks were turned into 3 runs by the Tribe. You can talk about small ball all you want. If it doesn't include walks, you are not playing it. The Sox are not. However, Ozzie did have Jermaine Dye try and bunt over Ozuna in the 8th, when they were down 2 runs. Wrong on a few different levels, from my seat.
Sure Cleveland has won 6 straight and is 34-11 since the end of July. They have exploded. But even so, the Sox have had a mediocre second half. Jayson Stark points out:
• Only one team in the history of baseball -- the 1914 "Miracle" Braves -- was ever 15 games out at any point of any season and came back to finish first. But that team fell 15 back in the first week of July, not the first week of August.
• The biggest Aug. 1 lead any team in history has ever blown, on the other hand, is 11 games -- by the 1995 Angels. But these Indians already have made up more games than that in just a month and a half.
• The White Sox, meanwhile, started out their season by going 62-29 in their first 91 games. Only two teams in history ever roared out to a start that good, were in undisputed possession of first place after those 91 games and didn't finish first -- the 1978 Red Sox (up 8½) and the 1942 Dodgers (up 6½).
• But no team that started 62-29 or better ever finished its season by playing sub-.500 baseball for the rest of the season. The White Sox, we regret to report, are 28-30 since then.
One other thing to look at: run differential. White Sox are 90-58 with 691 runs scored and 607 allowed. The Tribe? 727 & 599.
No comments:
Post a Comment