Well, that didn’t last long. After Thursday’s thumping of the Rays it really seemed liked the White Sox offense was back. Perhaps it was wishful thinking hoping for a similar performance against an ace like Justin Verlander, but no one would blame Sox fans for being a bit disappointed right now.
For a team that was supposed to compete for their division and possibly repeat 2005, they’ve had real trouble when facing quality opposing starters. During their seven game long skid and tonight they’ve seen some of the best pitchers the AL has to offer… and failed miserably against them. They’ll have to get a lot better if they’re going to get into the playoffs, let alone make it to another World Series.
Friday night’s game was one in which both the hitting and the pitching failed on the night. The offense managed to generate only three runs off of Verlander — all three coming off of solo shots by Carlos Quentin and Paul Konerko, but nothing else. Meanwhile Mark Buehrle and the bullpen combined to spot nine runs to the Tigers.
Buehrle was once again denied his 150th career victory. He didn’t really have his best stuff on Friday, pitching only 5.2 innings and giving up six runs on eight hits and two walks. The only bright spot was his five strikeouts. The bullpen wasn’t much better as Tony Pena gave up another three runs of his own over 2.1 innings. It really was just an all around poor effort by a team that needs something to get back on track to the winning ways they had at the beginning of the season…
The Sox will face the Tigers again and try for revenge on Saturday. First pitch will be at 3:10 P.M., CDT.