Bon Jour, June

St. Louis:   I spent yesterday evening at the local ballpark scouting EFL players.  My reports on your players (if I saw any of yours) are below.  I’m sure they’ll come in handy as you decide how to conduct yourselves in this evening’s draft.

 

Old Detroit:  W 2, L 0; 10 – 7.    We were there primarily to get a look at Wolverine second baseman Kolten Wong, but of course he didn’t start the game.  Which the Cardinals now regret.  Wong’s replacement, Pete Kozma, made an error in the first inning adding to the Cardinal starter’s pitch count.  Then in the third, with one out and a man on first, Kozma bobbled another double play grounder, leaving him with barely enough time to get the batter at first.  Later that runner scored, giving the White Sox a 1 – 0 lead.  Wong only got in as a pinch hitter late in the game, going 0 for 2.   LESSON:  I go to  a lot of trouble to proved MLB teams with fine Wolverine players, doggone it.  Don’t leave my players rotting on the bench!

Haviland:  W 2, L 2; 15 – 15. St. Louis brought in Trevor Rosenthal to pitch the ninth even though the score was tied. He stuggled a little — issuing a walk and a hit = and I had visions of a glorious triple chulk dragging down the Dragons.  But Rosenthal escaped with what looks in our stats like a fine scoreless inning. But I’m telling you it really wasn’t. LESSON: Spend whatever it takes to get a top-notch reliever to back up shaky Rosenthal.

Cottage:  W 3, L 0; 14 – 6.  No Cheeses appeared in the game I watched last night.  Cheeses are trying to sneak up on the EFL leaders the last few days.  This is, of course, upsetting and distracting, so I’m sorry to say I have nothing ready to report on specific Cheeses’ doings this morning.  LESSON: It doesn’t pay to make the Commissioner nervous.

Peshastin:  W 4, L 0; 20 – 6. I was at the game with a couple of local yokel Cardinal fans brimming with confidence that their team with its fancy 51-25 record could take the lowly White Sox without any trouble.  I warned them — Chris Sale, the Sox’ starter, is awfully good.  When Sale mowed down the Cardinals with ease the first inning, I repeated my warning.  And Sale lived up to my predictions: 8 ip, 1 er.  That one run was a Randall Grichuk home run; otherwise Sale dominated the Cardinals with 12 strikeouts and one walk. (Sale tied Pedro Martinez’ record with his 8th straight game of double-digit strikeouts.)

Sale shone in another way, too.  During his first at-bat I explained to Ben why Sale’s batting line for the season to that point was 0 for 8 — you know, American League starting pitchers never getting to bat, and all that.  Ben said “Wouldn’t it be ironic if Sale hit a homer right now?”  I said “Yes.  It would even be ironic if he got a hit.”  On the next pitch he singled cleanly to left center, a soft liner over the shortstop.  He was the runner who made it to second when Kozma bobbled his second double-play chance.  And so he was the runner who scored the Sox’ first run. Chris Sale — pitching and hitting hero for the Sox.  LESSON: You have Sale.  Why would you need anyone in today’s draft?

Pittsburgh:  W 2, L 2; 18 – 13.  The Cardinals’ starter was Allegheny Lance Lynn.  I’m afraid I came to the game hoping to see a 12 – 10 outcome, with Sale and Lynn delivering sweet chulks to the masses. It didn’t happen that way, but for several innings it looked like Lynn, at least, might cooperate with my desires.

Kozma’s error and his later failure to turn a double play compounded a pitch-count problem for Lynn, who kept racking up 20 or more pitches per inning.  I was surprised when he went out to pitch the 6th inning with a pitch count already at 106 or so.  “Aha!” I said to myself, “Mike Matheny  has just walked into my trap. Lance Lynn melt-down here we come!”  But he got through it, allowing only 1 run in his 6 innings of gutsy pitching, with 6 k’s and only 1 walk.

Allegheny Tyler Flowers caught for the White Sox and went 2 for 5 with an 11th inning home run that gave the Sox their final winning margin. I didn’t see this homer — we had abandoned our seats after 10 innings — but I heard the White Sox fans cheering when we were three blocks away walking to our car.  LESSON:  NEVER leave before the game is over. 

Flint Hill:  W 1, L 1; 6 – 4. Jason Heyward played right field for the Cardinals last night. I spent the whole evening rooting against him with vigor since I thought he was still on the third-place Cheese. Now that I realize he was just a harmless sixth-place Tornado, I repent of all my ill will. I’m sorry if I somehow caused Heyward harm, although I apparently wasn’t all that effective since he went 1 for 4 with a walk and played spotless defense.   LESSON: Weren’t you listening earlier?  “It doesn’t pay to make the Commissioner nervous.”  Why draft someone today?  It might make your record improve and you might end up making the Commissioner nervous. 

Kaline: W 1, L 3; 17 – 18.  No Drives played in St. Louis last night, which means I probably shouldn’t even talk about Drives since I refused to talk about Cheese.  Except I did notice these Drive achievements during the game, or at least on the ride home:

1.  Mike Zunino homered for the M’s to put them ahead. Then Brad Miller homered to pad their lead.  Edgar Martinez’ batting coaching must be paying off.

2.  Mitch Moreland hit two homers. For the second game in a row.  Moreland’s line for the last two days: 4 for 8 with a walk. That’s .500, .556, 2.000.  And I CUT him last spring after trading for him.  What a dummy!  And the Wizard of Whidbey just signed him back up as  a Drive.  LESSON: He’s the Wizard and I’m not. 

Canberra: W 1, L 2; 12 – 19.  Jose Abreu went 2 for 5, and drove in Chris Sale after Wong-usurping Kozma’s unofficial error on the double play ball with Sale on at first.  Abreu’s RBI was not a screaming line drive — it was a routine grounder that hit second base and bounced up over Kozma’s head and into center field.

Every single bit of both White Sox run  — and thus of the entire White Sox win — was due to the efforts of an EFL player (on offense) and on the failures of defense because an EFL player was left on the bench.  LESSON:  I have to repeat myself again? I guess so: Don’t leave EFL players on the bench!

Portland:  W 1, L 3; 13-21.  The Rosebuds have some real major league players.  And one of them — Gordon Beckham — got into the game as a pinch hitter for the White Sox.  He didn’t do anything — 0 for 2 with two strikeouts — but he was there just as much as Kolten Wong was. Watching the game last night would have given you no clue as to whether it was Old Detroit leading the EFL and the Rosebuds in last place, or the other way around.  LESSON: Never give up!  Outbid all those second, third, and fourth-place teams for the really good players in today’s draft.