In their last full turn through the rotation, White Sox starters have allowed 3 earned runs in 36 innings.
When you have stats that good, you don't need anything clever or witty for your lead.
A year and a half ago, I wrote this piece, detailing the best turn through the '06 rotation of Buehrle-Garcia-Contreras-Garland-Vazquez. Well, what we've seen starting Saturday afternoon from Floyd-Vazquez-Buehrle-Danks-Contreras is even better.
Starting with Floyd's near no-hitter vs. the Tigers (who, since leaving the Cell have begun to turn on the firepower-it's a good thing they spotted the Sox a 5-game lead in the AL Central), Sox starters have combined for 4 wins, a 0.75 ERA, and 27 strikeouts against only 7 walks and zero, count 'em, zero homeruns.
The final piece came last night in Baltimore, where Jose Contreras turned in his first walk-less performance since last August, going 7 innings to get his first win of the season.
It was appropriate last nights game was in Baltimore, because the Sox executed the perfect Earl Weaver strategy to knock off the O's: nothing, nothing, wait for it…bam! three-run homer.
Normally, I would be more concerned that the Sox offense wasn't able to scratch across anything for 27 consecutive outs after putting their 3-spot up in the 1st inning. In '06 and '07, the Sox often seemed content after scoring early and went into hibernation in the middle and late innings.
But this team has a different feel. Nick Swisher, Orlando Cabrera and Carlos Quentin have transformed this offense the way Scott Podsednik, Tadahito Iguchi and AJ Pierzynski did in 2005.
Don't let my obligatory "things are good, just like 2005!" reference fool you, this team has nothing to do with that one. And, for the record, they are not playing "with more heart" and/or "intensity" than in 2007 either. Those are two fallacies that Chris Rongey's callers love to bring up in every post game show.
The truth is this team is just better at playing baseball. (Don't question Andy Gonzalez's heart!) Their approach at the plate-patiently taking walks and opposite field singles-is simply beautiful to watch. Even old school Ozzie, who used to think a combination of track star speed and a swing-at-everything mentality was all you need to succeed, is buying into the new look offense.
"I'd rather have 100 guys on base than 100 guys stealing bases," the skipper said.
And even when they're not scoring a lot, they're scoring enough: the Sox have scored only 8 runs in their last three games, but have won two of them. At 9-5, the Sox currently sit atop the AL Central with the League's best record.
Can it hold up? The big tests will be 1.) Can the pitching hold up when the weather gets warmer and the Cell plays like a bandbox? and 2.) Can the Sox hitters stay within the current game plan and resist the temptation to swing for the fences when the ball starts flying?
Floyd and reliever Scott Linebrink both bear watching for the gopher ball as the summer weather emerges. Mistake pitches that turn into warning track fly balls right now, which Floyd has seen a lot of, will fly over the wall in another month or two. The same, theoretically, would be true for the Sox hitters, but if they come out of their shoes trying to hit homers their now-beautiful game plan might erode into "Corpseball" and solo homers.
And of course, at any time a no-name soft-tossing southpaw with a good change up is still even money to throw a complete game shut out against the Sox. So, some things never change. That's comforting.
As for the rest, keep up the good work!
