Humber Comes Up Short in Follow-up Performance
Well it wasn’t perfect. Philip Humber has shown us opposite ends of the pitching success spectrum in just two starts. It’s fairly impressive really. Humber’s first batter faced earned a walk and from there the first inning had the makings of blowout. Philip managed to escaped, allowing only 2 innings but the respite was short lived. In the 3rd he would serve up a grand slam to Kevin Youkilis and the following batter, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, would contribute the first of his two dingers on the night. Final line on Mr. Humber: 5 innings, 9 runs and 5 Ks, the worst start of his career. At least he’s keeping that strikeout rate up!
Red Sox: 10
White Sox: 3
Though the score was lopsided, it was a much easier game to watch than the previous day’s frustrating affair with the Athletics. The Sox did manage 7 hits on the night, one of which was an infield single from Adam Dunn. Wind sprints: they work. Dayan Viciedo was swinging the bat well, he would hit his 3rd HR of the year in the 4th inning and tack on a single later on in the evening.
Will Ohman and Zach Stewart mopped up out of the bullpen, each going 2 innings. Ohman allowed no runs on one hit and Stewart would surrender one run in the top half of the 9th.
Plus: Will I sound bitter if I say the plus is that there were no bunts and no caught stealing? Oh well.
Minus: Alexei’s offensive struggles continue. He did hit the ball pretty hard a couple times but the end result was an 0fer.
Tipping Point:
The Youkilis grand slam was worth a 26.2 shift in win expectancy.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @2012WhiteSox and keep up to date with all of Southside Showdown’s happenings by liking our Facebook page.