Mark Buehrle, LH Daniel Cabrera, RH
(11-4, 2.96) (8-8, 4.68)
Game time is 12:35 on CSNs in Baltimore and Chicago.
There are two and a half ways to look at last night's game. The first way is to say that Rodrigo Lopez, on a night the team needed him to provide innings, shit the bed and was demolished in short order, thus eliminating any chance we had to win. And that's the result of the game.
The second way is to see that we got 12 hits in the game, and that the only players who didn't get a hit were Newhan and Mora. Plus, the bullpen was very sharp, and in all honesty, the Orioles had their chances to get back into the game and possibly even win it. Of course, there's the half: they left 12 on base and repeatedly failed to deliver in the situations that could have seen them come back into it, which has been most of the problem of late. The team's inability to bring in the men they put on base is getting pretty staggering.
But that was yesterday, and today is today. Buehrle is a good pitcher having probably his best season. He's generally given up his fair share of homers, including 33 last year, but he's allowed only eight this season. In seasons past, his HR/9 totals have been 0.88, 0.98, 0.94, 0.86 and 1.21. This year, he's at 0.46.
He's a workhorse pitcher. A lot of the White Sox pitchers have been workhorse pitchers. This is considered commendable, and to some extent I agree, but what happens when these guys wear out? What happens to the White Sox if Buehrle or Garcia or Garland go down with an injury, or see their performance slip dramatically because they're simply tired? With Buehrle, it's not that likely for several reasons, but what about a guy like Freddy Garcia?
At what point can the White Sox no longer rely on players to push themselves through back injuries that aren't going to get better by playing baseball (Hermanson and Crede), or potentially fatigue a starting pitching staff? The latter does do one positive thing, which is save the pen, but how good is that bullpen over four or five innings instead of two or three? I don't know. Maybe none of that happens. I am not Nostradamus. But I think they have things to worry about.
This will be Cabrera's second start in three days. Hopefully this one lasts a little longer and we can avoid a sweep.