In the final episode of "The Club," the White Sox brain trust confers around a table trying to decide whether to pursue a big bat (preferably left-handed) or rotation insurance.
Dan Fabian (stat guy) and Buddy Bell voted for the bat. Other guys like assistants Dave Yoakum, Bill Scherrer and Del Matthews wanted the pitcher, with the justification that good pitching always beats good hitting.
I was reminded of this scene while watching the pitcher the Sox ended up trading for, Edwin Jackson, receive the bare minimum of offense to work with on Monday night. Jackson pitched well -- better than he did against Detroit, in terms of location -- but he couldn't make a 1-0 lead hold up.
Sure, good pitching beats good hitting. But what if bad hitting makes the other team's pitching look good? Then you're counting on good pitching to beat good (relatively speaking) pitching, and that can result in three-one run losses in one series.
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Those three one-run losses have dropped the Sox into a first-place tie with the Minnesota Twins, who, as luck would have it, come to town for what could be a big three-game series.
It can be easy to get too carried away with the Baltimore performance. The Sox tend to struggle against the Orioles for whatever reason, it was the final game of an eight-game road trip. They looked similarly ragged at the end of their westward swing, and they came back home to win seven of eight.
Things are set up rather evenly when it comes to the pitchers:
- Today: Freddy Garcia vs. Scott Baker
- Wednesday: John Danks vs. TBA (probably Glen Perkins)
- Thursday: Gavin Floyd vs. Francisco Liriano
The Sox send their shakiest starter against the inconsistent Baker, Danks draws a guy who's been struggling at Rochester, and then it's ace on ace in the finale.
The stakes are obvious, but they can be overstated unless one team comes away with a sweep. They meet again next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so whichever team drops two of three would have ample opportunity to make up for it.
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Minor league roundup:
- Birmingham 6, Mississippi 2
- Christian Marrero went 1-for-3 with a sac fly and a strikeout.
- Eduardo Escobar was also 1-for-3 with a sac bunt.
- Justin Greene went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Wilmington 5, Winston-Salem 4
- Jose Martinez hit a solo shot, his third of the year.
- Brandon Short delivered a triple and a single over five ABs.
- Josh Phegley went 1-for-3 with a sac fly.
- Joe Serafin allowed three runs over six innings, but none were earned. Seven hits, two walks, one strikeout.
- Hagerstown 4, Kannapolis 1
- Tyler Saladino and Brady Shoemaker both went 2-for-4 with a double.
- Nick Ciolli went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Miguel Gonzalez wore the collar.
- Justin Collop struck out seven over six innings, and allowed one earned run (four overall) on eight hits and a walk.
- Bristol 8, Danville 2
- Matthew Heidenreich pitched eight strong innings, allowing a run on seven hits. No walks, two strikeouts, 17 groundouts.
- Rangel Ravelo went 1-for-5 with a double and a strikeout.
- Missoula 2, Great Falls 0
- Andy Wilkins went 2-for-4.
- Ross Wilson went 1-for-4 with a K.
- David Holmberg struck out six over six shutout innings for Missoula.
