Sox Fall to Indians… Again
Jake Peavy's problem this year has been "the big inning." It seems whenever he's pitched poorly he's run into an inning where he's unable to get outs which costs his team five or six runs. Saturday night, however, the blip on the Peavy's radar was much, much smaller. He allowed just two runs in the fourth--one on three straight singles from Trevor Crowe, Shin-Soo Choo and Austin Kearns--and the other on a balk where Peavy was clearly at fault.
But once again it was the White Sox offense that failed to come up with a hit with men on base. Whether it was Gordon Beckham flying out to left on a well-hit ball with two on in the fourth, Paul Konerko striking out looking with men on second and third in the fifth or Jayson Nix swinging and missing with another two on in the sixth, the Sox couldn't come up with the big hit against Mitch Talbot.
All in all, Peavy's night was a marked improvement. He was able to keep the Indians in the ballpark--even if 11 of the 21 outs he recorded were fly balls--and only had multiple runners on in the fourth inning. His line (7 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K with 98 pitches thrown) leaves a few strikeouts to be desired but wasn't bad.
Matt Thornton can't be asked to be perfect every night either. His inning in the eighth (1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 K) wasn't his typical shutdown effort but over the course f the year, even guys like Matt Thornton are going to give up a run now and then. As for Bobby Jenks, the season has been a roller coaster. In the ninth Jenks gave up a double to Travis Hafner--who was 0-24 at the time. Even before that, with the count 3-2 to Hafner, Ozzie Guillen had Randy Williams up and warming in the bullpen. But Jenks was able to work out of trouble getting a ground out and a strike out to end the inning and keep the Sox within two.
What's plaguing the White Sox is a lack of hitting. It's abundantly clear and painfully evident.
