AND THAT'S A WHITE SOX WINNER!!!

[greg775]

Good win. Nice to see Robin let AJ hit instead of bunt him over in a tie game and AJ ... BAM! What a great baseball player AJ is. His career year continues. Nice of Rios to get on base in front of him as well. Good win. We must win the series, though. Twins stink and 2 out of 3 is a reasonable request if we want to win the division.

Edited August 1, 2012 by greg775

[Cali]

This team needs another 5-6 game streak badly. They cant go into another funk-after-winning-streak thing again. That's about the only thing they've done consistently this season haha

[hogan873]

Nice win. I liked what I saw from Liriano, but as many others have said, it'd be nice to see the walks come down. AJ, I don't know if there are enough good things to say about him. Another nail-biter save by Reed. Maybe I haven't watched him closely before, but his delivery is goofy. It's like he takes half a step, pauses, then lunges. I'm a firm believer in a closer being able to close games without much drama. Reed may be that guy eventually, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Myers closing this year.

[caulfield12]

I don't know what to suggest with Reed.

 

Maybe it's where he stands on the pitching rubber. Somehow, he might need to rethink his angle of attack...sometimes, he gets a favorable line, like with his K for the second out.

 

OTOH, his fastball is pretty darned straight. Not Billy Koch or Cliff Politte straight, but darned close. Blackburn's ball was moving all over the place at 90-91.

 

It's almost like he is overthrowing it and it flattens out. You always gets the feeling he's one of those guys who got so comfortable with his fastball at SD State and in the minors that he can't start to become a pitcher yet at the major league level until he keeps getting hit on that #1 pitch. Some days, it will be stuck at 93-94-95. Other times, it will pop in the 96 or even 97 range. There's a huge difference there when it goes in a straight line. You notice the same thing with Crain and Thornton. Heck, every pitcher in our bullpen but Myers right now.

 

You read the scouting reports, they tout his slider as the best in the organization...but Jones, when he's on, actually has had better results with his offspeed stuff.

 

Neither of them have thrown it for a strike more than 20-25% of the time. It's like Gavin or Phil's curveball....just not consistently reliable.

Edited August 1, 2012 by caulfield12

[southsider2k5]

And PK, repeat after me:

 

"What will I do if the ball is hit to me? What will I do if the ball is hit to me? What will I do if the ball is hit to me?......"

 

He twisted his ankle. That is the only reason he looked strange on that play. He has made that play a million times, and he knows how to handle it.

[southsider2k5]

Gordon Edes ‏@GordonEdes

 

Tigers are furious this one was called and let the commissioner's office know

 

The Boston field used to be notoriously bad for draining. Did they ever Sodfather it?

[TaylorStSox]

Reed's fine at 94, but he needs to regain the tilt on his slider.

 

I'd look into extending Liriano at 3/21 with a club option right now.

[cabiness42]

Apparently Tigers brass and Jim Leyland aren't on the same page:

 

from espn.com:

 

The game began in light rain that got heavier. Even Detroit manager Jim Leyland supported the decision to halt it even though his team had a shot at a big inning but ended up with its fifth loss in six games.

 

"The umpires do the best they can with that stuff. We had been playing in some pretty heavy rain," he said. "They definitely made the right call calling it now. So be it. We put ourselves in an unfortunate situation."

[Dick Allen]

16 out of 19 after the All Star break on the road and they are guaranteed to come home in first place. Things are looking good.(Except for Danks)

[caulfield12]

Apparently Tigers brass and Jim Leyland aren't on the same page:

 

from espn.com:

 

 

I think it was ALL about protecting Verlander.

 

He would have had the pressure of leaving him out there to continue his super long streak of going at least 6 innings each start.

 

And of course he didn't want him to get injured on that mound...not to mention he had 35-40 pitches in the first inning, including a bases-loaded walk.

 

At least that way, with the loss from ahead last Thurs against CLE and this game, he's absolved of any blame with how he's handling him.

[caulfield12]

16 out of 19 after the All Star break on the road and they are guaranteed to come home in first place. Things are looking good.(Except for Danks)

 

And Youk, and Beckham....and pretty much the entire bullpen.

 

One would describe them as shaky at best.

 

Crain survived unscathed two times but looked horrific in the process of being "effective" (the 1st and 3rd, no outs escape was nicer), Thornton seems to have a penchant for giving up liners all over the field. Fortunately, both of those guys had our defense playing well behind them, and good positioning.

 

Hard to blame Myers, he's the only one who has looked decent, but he gave up a leadoff hit to a bottom of the order hitter, too.

[dasox24]

I hope the Sox are talking about it. He's got a great arm and if you could get him to go 3 years at a fair price, it would be great. Maybe even go 2 years if he'd prefer a shorter deal where he can prove himself and then sign a big fat deal somewhere else.

Definitely. I'd be very open to re-signing Liriano to a 2 or 3 year deal. Gives us a guy who can eat some innings and a solid vet in the rotation. Plus, we can get the occasional lights out performance that he's capable of.

[Balta1701]

Definitely. I'd be very open to re-signing Liriano to a 2 or 3 year deal. Gives us a guy who can eat some innings and a solid vet in the rotation. Plus, we can get the occasional lights out performance that he's capable of.

Would you give a guy with an ERA > 5 for 3 of the last 4 seasons a 3/$30 contract? What money are we talking here?

[iamshack]

He twisted his ankle. That is the only reason he looked strange on that play. He has made that play a million times, and he knows how to handle it.

I'm referring to the play with the bases loaded and 1 out.

[iamshack]

Would you give a guy with an ERA > 5 for 3 of the last 4 seasons a 3/$30 contract? What money are we talking here?

I'd like to see what effect Coop's adjustments might have on him first.

[Kyyle23]

The Boston field used to be notoriously bad for draining. Did they ever Sodfather it?

 

Im pretty sure he redid the field. But i think it is like Wrigley in that he can only do so much because of how old the plumbing is. IIRC Wrigley had extremely narrow drain pipes under the field that could not be ripped out, so he had to install multiple drain tanks throughout the field in order to hold excess water and drain it in a timely fashion. But once those tanks get full in a large storm, it still backfills onto the field.

[Balta1701]

Im pretty sure he redid the field. But i think it is like Wrigley in that he can only do so much because of how old the plumbing is. IIRC Wrigley had extremely narrow drain pipes under the field that could not be ripped out, so he had to install multiple drain tanks throughout the field in order to hold excess water and drain it in a timely fashion. But once those tanks get full in a large storm, it still backfills onto the field.

The puddle in front of me on the OF warning track didn't disappear until the middle of the game after a rainy afternoon.

[southsider2k5]

Definitely. I'd be very open to re-signing Liriano to a 2 or 3 year deal. Gives us a guy who can eat some innings and a solid vet in the rotation. Plus, we can get the occasional lights out performance that he's capable of.

 

To me it is on Cooper. He gets a free two, or maybe three, month look at the guy. If Coop wants to resign him at that point, I try to resign him.

[Chisoxfn]

To me it is on Cooper. He gets a free two, or maybe three, month look at the guy. If Coop wants to resign him at that point, I try to resign him.

Its tough. I go by what Coop has seen on film. If he thinks he has identified some things that will work, I try signing him to a favorable deal now. If he kicks ass down the stretch, he might have priced himself out. Hopefully he does do exactly that.

[caulfield12]

Francisco Liriano made it through six innings Tuesday night without the usual parade of mound visits Twins fans are used to seeing from his catchers.

 

White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski has a different philosophy.

 

"He told me [Monday], 'If you want me to come out to talk to you every inning I'll do that,'" Liriano said. "But he doesn't like talking to the pitcher a lot. So that's fine with me." (nice shot at Joe Mauer...)

 

Liriano let his pitching do the talking in his White Sox debut, and in the ninth inning, Pierzynski settled the score with his bat, hitting a two-run homer off Jeff Gray to defeat the Twins 4-3 before a crowd of 36,424 at Target Field.

 

Nick Blackburn turned in his best performance of the season, giving up two runs over eight innings, but the first-place White Sox ended the Twins' four-game winning streak.

 

Three days after getting traded from the Twins for infielder Eduardo Escobar and lefthander Pedro Hernandez, Liriano found himself paired in an unusual battery. Pierzynski is the same player the Twins traded to the Giants in 2003 to get Liriano, Joe Nathan and Boof Bonser.

 

"It's something I never thought I'd do when we were traded for each other way back in the day," Pierzynski said. "It's cool."

 

Wearing their gray uniforms with black trim, Liriano (No. 58) and Pierzynski (No. 12) walked together from the bullpen to the dugout before the game, as the starting lineups were announced over the public address system.

 

For some reason, Twins fans still boo Pierzynski's name, but they gave Liriano a warm round of applause. Liriano escaped some early trouble and wound up taking a 1-0 lead into the sixth inning.

 

The Twins capitalized on two walks to take a 2-1 lead that inning -- without getting a hit out of the infield. The go-ahead run scored on Danny Valencia's two-out infield single.

 

That was it for Liriano, who held the Twins to two runs on four hits in six innings, with four walks and eight strikeouts.

 

"Frankie did his thing," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He got in the same situations he got in with us. He just worked his way out of them. That's exactly what you're going to get out of him. You're going to get battles."

After falling behind in the sixth, Chicago came back to tie it in the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Alexei Ramirez. But Gardenhire was thrilled Blackburn turned in eight innings on a night the Twins wanted to rest several members of the bullpen.

 

"[Jared] Burton was not pitching, [Alex] Burnett was not pitching, [Glen] Perkins was save [situation] only," Gardenhire said, explaining that if he had used Perkins and Burton, they wouldn't have been available Wednesday.

 

"Some other people have to get some outs," Gardenhire added. "Gray's got good stuff. He's been throwing the ball well. He just didn't tonight."

 

Alex Rios led off the ninth inning with a single, hitting an 0-2 pitch off Gray (5-1), and Pierzynski also drilled an 0-2 pitch on his home run, a ball crushed down the right-field line. It was Pierzynski's 18th homer of the season, matching a career-high set in 2005, his first year with Chicago.

 

"After the game [Liriano] was great," Pierzynski said. "He apologized to me for being wild. I was like, 'Dude you're fine. You're great. Don't apologize to me.' I thought he threw the ball great and hope he can continue to grow after this one."

startribune.com/sports

[southsider2k5]

Its tough. I go by what Coop has seen on film. If he thinks he has identified some things that will work, I try signing him to a favorable deal now. If he kicks ass down the stretch, he might have priced himself out. Hopefully he does do exactly that.

 

Being able to ID a problem is the easy part in my mind. He gets the next two months to decide what kind of student that Liriano is.

[caulfield12]

Denard Span caught a slider and hooked it softly into right field for a single to open the bottom of the first. Two innings later, Span looped a fly ball into center field. In the sixth, Darin Mastroianni nubbed a bouncer toward first and beat it out. Later, Danny Valencia hit a ball into the shortstop hole that Alexei Ramirez fielded with a dive and couldn't make a play.

 

That was it. That was the substance of the Twins' hitting against Francisco Liriano, a teammate until late Saturday night, when he was traded to the Chicago White Sox.

 

The Twins managed only four puny singles off Frankie -- and it was only through misfortune that he didn't leave Target Field with a victory against the team for which he made all of his previous big-league appearances.

 

Liriano was impressive through five innings Tuesday night, requiring only one piece of assistance, and that came from plate umpire Mike Muchlinski. A walk and Span's second single had two on with two outs in the third, and Muchlinski chose to call out Joe Mauer on a 3-2 pitch that split the chalk of the lefthanded batter's box.

 

Gentleman Joe was as upset as he gets, stepping in front of Muchlinski to tell him he had missed the call.

 

Liriano put it in gear after that, not so much with his fastball but with his famous slider and underrated changeup.

 

Then came the sixth. The inning opened with Liriano's eighth strikeout. Mastroianni's goofy little roller followed for a hit. He stole second and third, and it had the desired effect on Frankie's psyche.

 

Liriano walked Mauer and Josh Willingham to load the bases. He still had the chance to continue the shutout, until first baseman Paul Konerko fielded Justin Morneau's bouncer and threw it past catcher A.J. Pierzynski to give the Twins a 1-1 tie.

 

With two outs, Valencia hit the ball into the shortstop hole, Ramirez couldn't make a play, and it was 2-1 for the Twins.

 

Liriano was done after six innings, giving up those four puny singles, walking four and striking out eight. He deserved better than being on the hook for the loss.

 

And his new team took care of that. The White Sox tied the game 2-2 on a Ramirez single off a strong Nick Blackburn in the seventh, and then won it 4-3 on Pierzynski's two-run wallop off Jeff Gray in the ninth.

 

It was a no-decision for Liriano and only good feelings in the visitors clubhouse as to how he pitched.

 

"He pitched great," Chicago manager Robin Ventura said. "To pitch like that against a team that he has seen for so long and knows him so well ... that was very good. He looked calm the whole night. He was just pitching."

 

Pierzynski said, "He was little bit excited, nervous, early in the dugout, but he made his pitches."

 

What was different about catching Liriano rather than facing him?

 

"I'm glad that somebody else has to hit that slider," A.J. said.

 

Liriano said it was "kind of weird" to be facing the Twins, and he was "excited," and also said, "It was another game for me."

 

Which means: Frankie remained as much of a contradiction with his comments after his first start for the White Sox as he was with his pitching in his previous 130 starts for the Twins.

 

There were those 14 starts in 2006, from mid-May until the end of July, when Liriano was a rookie and baseball's pitching sensation. He was 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA in those 14 and joined Johan Santana in carrying the Twins back from oblivion to a division title.

 

There was tenderness in his elbow after that 14th start, and then two more failed attempts to pitch -- once in August, once in September -- before it became clear he would require Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery.

 

It was always an adventure with Frankie once he returned from that arm repair. There was some adventure on Tuesday, although not really of his doing, and the White Sox had to leave the ballyard with this feeling:

 

They had found a starter who can help them outlast Detroit in the AL Central, and they had found him on the cheap.

 

Patrick Reusse can be heard noon-4 weekdays on 1500-AM. • [email protected]

 

 

[elrockinMT]

Would you give a guy with an ERA > 5 for 3 of the last 4 seasons a 3/$30 contract? What money are we talking here?

 

 

We certainly do get excited over one game don't we?

[Wanne]

Not one mention of Tanks catch...dude saved a couple runs there.

[hogan873]

We certainly do get excited over one game don't we?

It's not just one game, although had he been terrible the attitude would be different. What we (well, the Sox really) have to look at is the potential. The guy definitely has the potential to be a great pitcher. He's shown flashes of brilliance in the past. If he can get his walks under control, he's that much better. He can throw a ton of pitches, and having better control will allow those 120 pitches to occur over 8 innings instead of 6. Regardless, we're not talking about a guy who's going to get $20MM a year like Grienke. The Sox could sign Liriano for around $8MM to $10MM a year. If that happens, great. We'd have a guy who can eat innings, be a solid guy in the rotation, and have the occasional brilliant game.