I’m pretty sure that the whole team is still riding a high from last night and the optimist in me hopes that that works in their favor. And I hope that they all got a lot more sleep than FranKKKie because he was reportedly up all night talking to friends and family in the DR and receiving text after text of congratulations – including one from Orlando Hudson. He will get back to his regular schedule I’m sure but he is more than welcome to recover on a little bit looser time frame given that his next start will be a few days away. The rest of the team has to go out there today and continue to kick White Sox butt and I would REALLY like to see a bit more hitting than last night. It just seems like it’s pushing it a little far to expect another no hitter today – or even a shutout, just saying.
In other news, yes, Thome is on the DL now. Oddly, because we all seem to know about it already, Repko is also supposedly going on the DL with continuing issues with the quad he injured and Ben Revere will be back up with the big boys but it’s not been made OFFICIAL that I have seen yet. *shrug* I’m wondering if that has something to do with the official lineups being a little slower than normal today which is why the post is a little later than normal and only half here. The lineups will be up shortly…
[update] apparently the flight that both Plouffe & Revere are on was delayed and Gardy is waiting because he may actually put one or both in the lineup.
I guess Gardy finally gave up because the lineups were just posted without either callup.
| Minnesota | @ | Chi White Sox |
| Span, CF | Pierre, LF | |
| Tolbert, SS | Ramirez, A, SS | |
| Morneau, 1B | Dunn, A, DH | |
| Kubel, RF | Konerko, 1B | |
| Cuddyer, DH | Quentin, RF | |
| Tosoni, LF | Pierzynski, C | |
| Valencia, 3B | Rios, CF | |
| Butera, C | Teahen, 3B | |
| Casilla, A, 2B | Vizquel, 2B | |
| Blackburn, P | Danks, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Minnesota | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| Chi White Sox | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
YAY!! Two wins in a ROW!! That’s fantastic! And even more important?
SWEEP!
Yes, I know it was only a 2 game sweep but still – it was the White Sox. And we need to enjoy every win we can get.
However, it wasn’t nearly as easy to vote for a BOD today. This was a consistent effort on the team but no REAL standout screamed “pick me.” Kubel once again held down the RBI crown for today but Span had 2 hits and 2 runs and young, Mr. Tosoni had the winning RBI to his credit – which we needed – so he’s not to be forgotten either.
But in the end, the vote went to Blackburn who, like Liriano, followed up his previous poor start with a solid outing today. With as little run production as the Rochester Redwings are able to get in the big show, we need our starting pitchers to keep the hitting to a minimum. That’s exactly what Blackburn did today. And the important part of that effort came to show in the failed participation of Mijares and Perkins. Thankfully, Capps came out and didn’t give up the lead completely and got his save but for all these reasons, Nick Blackburn is today’s BOD!
In an odd followup to the series victory today, the team sent Steve Holm back down to Rochester. It’s an odd move BECAUSE they didn’t bring anyone else up to go on the roadtrip to Boston and Drew is currently our only pitcher on the roster and it appears that Mauer is still not ready to make his return. I will definitely be keeping my eye on this situation. Something is stirring.
I cannot think of any reasoning at all for sending Holm down so long before making another roster move. Even if a trade or something were in the works, Boston is way closer to Rochester than Chicago is, so why not send him down during the road trip when necessary? If anything at all goes awry with whatever the plan is (that unnamed 25th man scratches his eyeball on a hotel feather pillow between now and then, or comes down with this stomach flu thing, or his plane is delayed; Drew comes out on the wrong side of a collision at home plate or slams his pinky in a car door), there’s literally no backup option. Morneau was always the dire-emergency catcher option (does he even know how to put on the gear?), but I can’t imagine anyone wants his head behind home plate right now. Do we just make Cuddyer play that position, too? We can’t field nine Cuddyers.
Rene Rivera was placed on the 40-man roster and then called up.
Kind of surprised me. I know Danny Lehman was just recently promoted to Rochester, but in ST the word was all about how the pitchers thought he called a good game and they liked his defensive work behind the plate… and then upon arriving in Rochester, he actually hit better than Rivera. I guess Rivera’s MLB experience worked in his favor.