Sox fall to Angels, head to Seattle

Over the past few days I have neglected my ability to write on this blog. I will try my hardest to write as much as I can.

Today, the Sox took a hard loss to the Angels with Mark Buehrle on the mound for us. The Angels sent Kelvim Escobar to the bump to face one of his former teammates in Darin Erstad. He repaid them by slamming a two-run shot off of Escobar in the 3rd inning. What a way to tell your team, "You made a mistake letting go of me."

Mark Buehrle's second no-hitter in the past three starts was broken up by a Macier Izturis homer, followed by a Vladamir Guerrero shot to the outfield. Not too much to hang onto as the Sox finish the game with a loss 5-2 to the Angels. Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez locked up his 8th save of the season. What a gamer he is.

Not too much to report on except the next game is on Tuesday against the Mariners, with Javier Vazquez going for us against the Mariners' Jarrod Washburn.

Vazquez Gets the Call Against Twins

The pitcher I hate will take on the team I hate. We have a little streak going with one win in the end of the Indians series, we have one injury so far which is Mark Buehrle.

Vazquez needs to have a good game. You can never tell with Javy. He's an inconsistent starter who will strikeout a lot of hitters and win around 14 games a year. I don't really care for Vazquez and I would like it if Kenny could throw him into a trade so we can get a quality pitcher.

Our offense is doing great! We're getting hits from Crede, Iguchi, Pierzynski and Uribe. We're getting homers from Thome and Erstad, we're getting some stolen bases from Erstad and Pods. I like the way this team is shaping up. We may not do so well today against Carlos Silva depending on how our lineup looks.

I say if it's Pods, Erstad, Konerko, then Thome we may stand a chance in the first inning to put up some runs and come away with the victory if our bullpen holds up a lead.

[Game Info]

The game is going to be on AM 670 The Score, like always. But it will also be on FOX channel 32. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver probably for the Fox booth, but on the radio side we get Ed Farmer and Chris Singleton.

[Visiting The Central]

Minnesota - W-3, L-0

Cleveland - W-2, L-1

Kansas City W-2, L-2

Chicago ---- W-1, L-2

Detroit ---- W-1, L2

Ahh... what a surprise!

The Royals are in third, the World Series team is tied for last, and the Twinkies are in first playing 1.000 baseball! This is great. Early in the season and we're losing to the worst team in the league.

Sox Get First Win of Season

CHICAGO -- With Mark Buehrle on the mound the Sox succeeded in doing something before the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals. And that is: Win a game. Though Grady Sizemore lead off the game with a homer... again... Buehrle did well!

Until the second inning when Ryan Garko hit a liner that went straight towards Buehrle's pitching hand and nailed him. Mark then went hopping off the mound in pain as he left the game with a hand injury. More news to come.

We did, however, pull off a win in the most unusual way I have ever seen... or... heard.

The bases are loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning after 3 straight walks by Roberto Hernandez of the Indians, with the score tied at 3 a piece. A.J. Pierzynski is batting and he gits hit by a pitch! A walk off HBP! I've never heard of that!

[Visiting The Central]

Minnesota - 3W, 0L

Cleveland -- 2W, 1L

Detroit ----- 1W, 1L

Chicago -- 1W, 2L

Kansas City 1W, 2L

Look at that! We're tied for last with Kansas City! The high school team!

We can still make a run for first in our upcoming series with the Twins, if we can pull off a sweep. Think it could happen?

Well lets put it this way: Johan Santana doesn't pitch until Sunday against Contreras. Francisco Liriano is injured so we don't have to worry about him. If Vazquez can get a win tomorrow against Silva, and by some miracle Contreras beats Santana we could be tied for first by Monday!

Buehrle to Make 1st Start of Season

Finally, in Chicago, Mark Buhrle will make his first start of the season! He didn't start opening day for the first tim since I've been a Sox fan, which is crazy. Though Jose Contreras did fine on opening day (yeah right...) I would've considered Buehrle to have been a better choice.

Jeremy Sowers will oppose Buehrle as we hope to come away with our first win of the season.

[Game Info]

The game will be on at 1:05 PM CST on AM 670 The Score, if you live in the Chicago area. Join pre and post game host Chris Rongey at 12:35 for the beginning of the pregame show, then immediatly following will be Ed Farmer and Chris Singleton from the lovely U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Illinois. Then after the game: the post game show with Rongey.

GO SOX!!!

Sox Lose Again

CHICAGO -- Jon Garland took the hill 0-0, yet left it 0-0. Jim Thome hit his first homerun of the year in the first inning off of Westbrook, and I'm glad he did! We need some help on the offensive side of the game. Though our pitching needs a little work with Cooper, we can still pull off a winning record in Week One.

I don't really like the fact that Buehrle didn't go on opening day. He's never good unless he's pitching on opening day. Now granted he hasn't pitched too well in the past anyway he does have a better record when he starts on opening day.

Now... back to the actual game! Thome also hit a double, along with Tadahito Iguchi. Speaking of Iguchi, Tadahito hit a home run today! More of this should be expected from Tadahito.

Our pitching did well! Garland KO'd 5, MacDougal struckout 3, and David Aardsma punched out 5.

Final Score: Indians 8 - Sox 7

Sox Hitter of the Game: Jim Thome (1)

Sox Pitcher of the Game: David Aardsma (1)

[Visiting The Central]

Detroit beat the Blue Jays 10-9. The Twins won 7-2 against the Orioles with Ramon Ortiz getting the win. The Royals right now are losing to the Red Sox... 6-1.

Garland on the Bump for Game 2

So now after our loss on Monday, Jon Garland will take the hill for us. We need a win from him and our offense needs to come through. Some good pitching from Garland and a great game from the bullpen, as well as some timely hitting from people who go without needing to be named, and we should have the win locked up.

Garland will be taking on the Indians' Jake Westbrook in today's game.

Contreras' loss on Monday was obviously a bad one, though we did find out that in 1917 Lefty Williams was taken out of his opening day start after giving up around 7 runs, then the Sox went on to win 100 games and beat the Giants in 6 games to win the World Series.

You know what that means: Another World Series victory is in the future for the Sox.

[Game Info]
The game, as always, will be broadcast on AM 670 The Score and will feature Chris Singleton, and returning from California: Ed Farmer. I think Steve Stone did a good job in the game on Monday and I'd like to have him as a 3rd broadcast man.

[Visiting the Central]
Another stop in the AL Central as this takes us to the land of game previews, standings, and division leaders.

Lets first take a look at the standings.
Minnesota - 2W -- 0L
Cleveland -- 1W -- 0L
Kansas City 1W -- 0L
Chicago -- 0W -- 1L
Detroit ---- 0W -- 1L

Kansas City surprised me in 3rd place. I thought we'd be there by now, but we're only 1 game into the season.

Todays Games: Orioles are in Minnesota to wrap up their series with Ramon Ortiz going for the Twins and Jaret Wright for the O's. Toronto and Detroit will also finish their series with Nate Robertson on the mound for the Tigers against A.J. Burnett for the Blue Jays. Josh Beckett will be pitching for the Red Sox as they take on Odalis Perez and the Royals in KC today.

And thus wraps up today's edition of:

-- Visiting the Central --

Sox Lose in Opening Day

CHICAGO -- Everything was smooth... until the second pitch of the game was thrown. That is when Cleveland centerfielder Grady Sizemore hit a home run off of Jose Contreras to make the score 1-0. Then everything fell apart in the first ending up in a 5-run inning.

But that wasnt the end of the Sox! In the bottom of the first Pablo Ozuna led off the inning with a double then was driven in on a Darin Erstad 2-run shot.

The Indians scored 4 more in the top of the second, followed by one for the Sox in the bottom.

In the third inning is when things started to look up for the Sox when Paul Konerko blasted his first homer of the year to make the score 9-3.

The scoring stopped until the top of the eighth inning when the Indians scored one, the bottom of the 9th resulted in 2 more Sox runs, then the end of the game and the score came out to: 12-5, Indians.

Winning Pitcher: C.C. Sabathia, 1-0.
Losing Pitcher: Jose Contreras, 0-1.
Sox Player of the Game: Darin Erstad. 1/4, 2 RBI, HR. .250 AVG.

Todays Sox Lineup

Please get your pencils and scorecards ready, here is the correct lineup for todays ballgame.

38 -- Pablo Ozuna ---- LF
17 -- Darin Erstad ---- CF
25 -- Jim Thome ----- DH
14 -- Paul Konerko ---- 1B
23 -- Jermaine Dye -- -RF
24 -- Joe Crede ------- 3B
15 -- Tadahito Iguchi - 2B
12 -- A.J. Pierzynski -- C
5 --- Juan Uribe ------ SS

And pitching
52 -- Jose Contreras -- RHP

Contreras to go Opening Day

For the first time since I've been an official Sox fan, Mark Buehrle isn't starting opening day! I've always seen Mark start but now its Jose Contreras, who had 17 straight wins between '05-'06. I think this is a good move on Ozzie's part and I like the fact that our 2nd best pitcher is going on one of the most important days of the year. Our 1st best pitcher being Garland.

I'm thinkin the Indians, who we play today, will really do good this year, except their first three games, if you know what I mean (wink, wink. Nudge, nudge).

According to The Score Pablo Ozuna will be leading off in todays game and will be playing Left Field.

Game lineups will come later, and the pitching matchup will be later, also.

[Game Info]

Starting at 12 o'clock, on AM 670 The Score, with the pregame show is Chris "The Ranger" Rongey. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 PM but I say it'll be around 1:08. With the first pitch, and the whole game, is Steve Stone, who is filling in for Ed Farmer because Ed's daughter had a little accident involving a car, and Chris Singleton!

[Pitching Matchup]

For us: Jose Contreras. For them: Captain Cupcakes Sabathia. Or C.C. if you live in Ohio.

[Visiting the Central]

In my first Visiting the Central I will look around the league at what other central division teams are doing! So lets get started... Detroit is playing Toronto with Bonderman going for the Tigers and Halladay for the Jays. Cleveland is playing the White Sox, our White Sox. Minnesota is playing Baltimore and we all know who's going for the Twinkies (ahem, Johan Santana). And last, and I mean last, The Kansas City Royals High School Baseball Team will play the Boston Red Sox. Meche vs. Schilling, but hey; who cares?