It's hard for one position player to singlehandedly lose a 4-2 ballgame, but Juan Pierre may have done it.
Pierre went 0-for-4, and it was an ugly 0-for-4. Two of those outs came with a runner in scoring position, and one was a backwards K. Then he killed the last threat the Sox posed when he followed up a Mark Teahen pinch-hit single by grounding into a 1-6-3 double play.
(Note: Next time somebody says Pierre isn't a threat to ground into double plays, slug them in the arm. He's not Ichiro.)
Here's how bad he was at the plate: FanGraphs says Pierre did more to lose than game thanMatt Treanor did to win it -- and Treanor had a homer, double, and three RBI.
Then again, that two-run double was mostly Pierre's doing. Don't get me wrong -- the catch at the wall wasn't easy. I think a 50 percent success rate on it would be quite generous. But when the left fielder in question is 1) hitting .211, 2) in search of his first extra-base hit 84 plate appearances into the season, and 3) an alleged upgrade on defense, that catch has to be made.
Pierre hasn't been the worst White Sox -- that honor goes to A.J. Pierzynski, who has been outdoubled by Donny Lucy this season. But Pierzynski's struggles are net harmless -- he's been a good enough value for almost all of his Sox career, his position makes you prepared for a clunker at his age, and there's some justice in seeing the false praise heaped on him become thoroughly indefensible.
It's also the last year of his contract. Pierre's just getting started -- and he's going to be nearly twice as expensive last year. This is grave on all fronts. We knew his bat was wet newspaper and he had no arm -- but now it looks like he's lost a step both getting down the line, and tracking flies in the outfield. He's a disaster on all fronts right now.
Aaaaaand, should it continue, it reflects poorly on the front office, which misread the market and overvalued the talent!
Ultimately, it's too early to press the panic button, but his performance is worthy of a warning shot. It's in everybody's best interest that he starts performing, and soon.
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Pierre wasn't alone, though. The whole White Sox lineup had a maddeningly counter-intuitive approach at the plate against C.J. Wilson.
Wilson is a sinkerballer. Wilson spent a lot of time working on the outside corner. Vladimir Guerrero, who covers as much ground in the outfield as Jermaine Dye, if Dye walked on his hands, was making an emergency start in right due to Nelson Cruz's injury.
Those three elements scream "Take the ball the other way," but guess how many times they tested Guerrero:
Zero.
They did not hit one ball in the air to right field. Alexei Ramirez, of all people, was the only Sox hitter to even hit a fair ball to Guerrero, somehow slashing a ball through the right side of the infield.
Of course, that played into Guerrero's strength. It was hit right at him, and sharply enough to set up his cannon to fire home and prevent Paul Konerko from even thinking of scoring from second and tying the game.
Then again, it's possible Pierre's arm would've stopped Konerko, who could only get halfway to second on a fly that hit the base of the wall. He had to turn back, and a double became a single.
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Today was an interesting day for former White Sox:
*Jon Garland's start fascinates me to no end. He struck out 10 batters for the first time since Aug. 24, 2003. These days, he needs four starts to rack up 10 K's. Seriously -- he doubled his season strikeout total over six innings against Florida. Furthermore, he hadn't even struck out nine since the last time he struck out 10. It's almost like a two-homer game for Pierre.
*Jon Link faced three batters -- two reached on a single, he walked the other, and two runs came around to score. This serves as a good example of why it's not a great use of time to worry about the back end of the bullpen. Every team has guys like this, and the Sox were actually too good for him.
*John Ely will make his major-league debut for the Dodgers against the Mets on Wednesday. I'm going to guess that he gives up four earned runs over four innings. I'm also going to guess that if he picks up a quality start and the win, Phil Rogers will mourn his absence the following day.
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Christian Marrero Reading Room:
*Jake Peavy says he thinks he's corrected his delivery. Supposedly it became more arm and less legs after injuring his ankle, so it'll be interesting to compare the video from his start tonight against footage from early in the season.
*He'll have to do it without Don Cooper, who is missing the Texas series to attend to a personal matter in Nashville.
*MLB is starting to crack down on Twitter. MLB.com beat writers are no longer allowed to tweet about anything unrelated to baseball, which is downright stupid, and they've fired a warning shot against players who tweet, too. I like Mark Teahen's reaction:
"I don't think it was put into place for me,'' the third baseman said."My dog gets out of line sometimes, but I'm pretty civil."
I'm glad Teahen's recovered from his rough start. I really didn't want to dislike him immediately.
*Back to Rogers, who, one day after saying the Sox should extend Paul Konerko, now says the Sox should consider trading John Danks to Milwaukee for the privilege of having an inside track on paying Prince Fielder way too much money, just after Ryan Howard elevated the pay floor for All-Star first basemen everywhere.
I ... I mean... Just...
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Minor league roundup (dark day edition):
- Columbus 12, Charlotte 7
- Daniel Hudson, horrible: 1 IP, 8 H, 9 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 HR.
- Tyler Flowers, terrible: 0-for-4, 4 Ks.
- Dayan Viciedo and C.J. Retherford, nothing: 0-for-4 apiece.
- At least Jordan Danks got on board with one hit and his sixth stolen base.
- Ramon Castro went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer in his first rehab start.
- Birmingham 5, Tennessee 4
- Christian Marrero hit his first homer of the season, part of a 2-for-5, three-RBI day.
- Charlie Shirek continues his strong pitching, allowing just one run on five hits and a walk over seven innings. One strikeout, 14 groundouts. The run increases his ERA to 0.69.
- Winston-Salem 6, Frederick 4
- Charles Leesman had his strikeout stuff, fanning eight over 5 2/3 innings. He allowed three runs on five hits and three walks.
- Dan Remenowsky pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
- Jon Gilmore went 4-for-5 to raise his average to .397. All were singles.
- Justin Greene was perfect, with a walk, single, double and triple.
- West Virginia 6, Kannapolis 1
- Nick Ciolli had three of Kanny's four hits, including a solo homer.
- Juan Silverio had the other one, a double.
- Trayce Thompson went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. It's the first time in 11 games he didn't reach base.
And Larry passes along some bad news: Josh Phegley's career is on hold as he deals with the blood disorder ITP (low platelet count). It doesn't sound fun, to say the least. Best of luck to Phegley, and let's hope for better days ahead on all fronts.
