The 'other' Sox

While the Red Sox’ fans are punching outfielders, White Sox fans are enjoying the start of the 2005 season. An 8-6 loss to Cleveland puts the Sox at 6-3. They’ve won two out of three in every series so far this year. What’s impressive is that they are churning out one-run wins, the kind of wins that they’re going to need with low-power offense. Also two of their series wins were at Minnesota and Cleveland. These two teams are going to be the main rivals for the Sox all year.

Behind the numbers:

The Sox have scored 38 runs and given up 40. That never leads to long-term success.

In the season-opener against the Indians the White Sox had a sellout crowd of 38,141. In the following two games the total attendance was slightly more than 21,000. When roles were reversed the following week (Sox at Indians, home opener), fans poured through the gates to the tune of 42,461 for the opener and about 27,000 total for the final two games. I guess when you see the Sox once, you’ve seen enough.

The Sox have won the first two games of every series and dropped the finale. Willie Harris and Ross Gload were our 1-2 hitters last night, so six runs was a minor miracle.
Among starters, Carl Everett leads the team with a .367 batting average. It will be interesting to see what Guillen does with Frank Thomas comes back. Bad news: The team has 13 walks in 312 plate appearances. No one on the team has more than two walks. That’s not how to manufacture runs.

White Sox starting pitchers have an ERA of 3.52. They’re consistently getting into the 7th inning. Relievers haven’t done so well, although Takatsu gave up all three runs (on solo homers) in one game and Vizcaino gave up six earned runs in one appearance. If the starters can stay this good (one or two guys are sure to tank eventually) and the pen guys can keep the bad showings to a minimum, this team’s going to be pretty good.

I may make a couple of Titans road trips this fall. My best friend live in Phoenix and Cardinals’ tickets might be the easiest to get in the league. The Titans open in Pittsburgh and I’m overdue to visit the hometown. That will be a really tough ticket and I might have to wear camouflage (black and gold) if I do find a way to get access. One creepy thought is if I do go to Pittsburgh there’s a good chance that I’ll be flying home on September 11.