White Sox weigh in
Brad Bergesen held a pretty good White Sox lineup hitless for 3 2/3 innings and might still be working on a short no-hitter if Ty Wigginton had not made an error on a sharp grounder by Carlos Quentin with one out in the fourth.
Bergesen walked the leadoff man in the inning and struck out Josh Fields before the error. He also struck out Jim Thome before Jermaine Dye hit a sharp single through the middle for a run and Paul Konerko followed with a line single to right that scored Quentin. The inning ended there when Dye was thrown out by Nick Markakis trying to go from first to third.
Finally a fundamental mistake that worked in the Orioles favor. Dye broke the unwritten rule that you never make the first or last out of an inning at third base.
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Comments
How about the fundamental error on that groundball that leads to 2 runs...this team needs to start catching the ball and making some plays. I know, even make some plays you shouldn't make. That'd be a nice change.
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Pete's reply: The Wigginton error was a physical error, not a fundamental one.
Posted by: jim66 | April 21, 2009 9:53 PM
Pete,
There is a reason they call him "Hard Hittin Carlos Quintin"! Brad looks good!
Posted by: Keith Rowe | April 21, 2009 10:16 PM
sorry i misspoke...i must have lost my mind and for a second considered catching and making a successful play on an infield groundball that 95 % of major leaguers do make as a fundamental part of the game. I'll be more careful in how i characterize the hacking from now on.
All I meant was you gotta make that play. Especially for this team. It always seems to come back and bite them.
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Pete's reply: I agree, but we strive for semantic purity.
Posted by: jim66 | April 21, 2009 10:21 PM
Amazing what can happen when you throw strikes. Bergesen's stuff isn't electric but he has control and an idea, making him the anti-Cabrera.
Posted by: Jon | April 21, 2009 10:26 PM
The 100 pitch rule is killing baseball. The only reason I can see for pulling Bergeson with 2 outs and nobody on in the 6th is that he had a 95 pitch count and the next batter might have taken him over the magic number. He was more confident in the 6th after the O's got the lead back, and should have had the chance to get the O's into the 7th inning. He could have been pulled as soon as he let another baserunner on. That would have made sense. What sense does it make to go to the "depleted" bullpen all the time? Not how to win games.
Posted by: Steve | April 21, 2009 10:26 PM
I would like to respectfully disagree with Steve. I believe Bergeson was removed at the right time. His debut, on a night with a substantial rain delay, had gone very well up until then and he appeared confident. Give him a chance to leave with the lead, having thrown 95 pitches, most of them very good. I know there is a lot of talk on here about not babying a new player but we may need Brad to pitch well for a long time. I thought the timing of his departure was perfect.
And I would also like to agree with Pete. Not on any of the baseball stuff, just that semantic purity thing.
Posted by: Clayton Fletcher | April 22, 2009 1:14 AM
Check his minor league innings. He's only been going about 5 innings per game so far.
Posted by: The Mythical One | April 22, 2009 10:08 AM