Streak Over

Last nights game was pretty hard to watch. The Sox basically gave away a game they should have won. They did a great job getting to Harden yet failed to break the game wide open. But still, taking a 7-4 lead in the sixth should have been enough to carry them home.

They lost this game for a number of reasons. Horrible defense, bad calls, injuries, you name it. But the biggest part of the blame has to go to Ozzie. It was clear all night that Buehrle didn’t have his best stuff. He wasn’t striking out anyone and needed 3 double plays to escape jams in the early innings. So it was no surprise that he gave up 4 in the 5th to let the A’s take a 4-3 lead.

So when the Sox got the lead back he needed to be on a short leash. This was especially true in the 7th as the top half of the inning took over 15 minutes to play. Uribe went down with an injury just standing in the batters box and the trainers were forced to come out again when Ozuna was hit in the forearm with a pitch.

I didn’t have a problem with Buehrle starting the inning as his pitch count was still in the 80s. But he needed to be pulled when Byrnes opened the inning with a single. He really needed to be pulled after Kendall followed with another single. How do you let him face Chavez in this situation? Marte was warmed up and ready to go. But Ozzie left Buehrle in, Chavez doubled, and the Sox went on to lose.

I shouldn’t be too upset as the Sox won a couple of games they had no business winning during this streak. But somehow that fails to make me feel better. Luckily there is a quick turnaround and I can erase this one from my memory with a Sox victory this afternoon.

And one final thing: Harden clearly threw at Everett, nailing him in the back in the 5th. It was really a punk ass move that required some sort of retaliation. The Cheat is right that something needs to be done today if Ozzie wants to back up all his smack with some actions.

The Sox are on to Kansas City to face the Royals. KC failed to help the Sox yesterday as they blew a couple of leads and fell 10-9 in ten innings against the Twins. Let's hope they continue playing bad ball against the Sox.

They Sox are starting to hit the ball and draw some walks. It’s about time the offense comes around as they aren’t going to win the division getting on base at a .285 clip. Especially since I don’t expect them to lead the AL in pitching all year.

Anyway, I’m not a believer in this team yet, preferring to wait until they finish up their road trip against Oakland. If they can finally win a series at the Coliseum I might start to take their playoff chances seriously.

Sox 5 Twins 4

The Sox have certainly had a strange start to the season. Any unbiased observer would admit that they are not exactly playing good baseball and yet they are 9-4. But they are 6-1 in one run games, a pretty good sign that they are catching some breaks. The question is whether the way they are playing now is indicative of their actual talent level. If it is, the good times will not last long.

But who knows. I've had a hard time figuring out this team the last few years so why should the 2005 version be any different.

As for the mini-controversy between Guillen and the Big Hurt, I would really like to know what Ozzie was thinking. Frank has been a good trooper, saying all the right things, and there is no reason for Ozzie to continue to take shots at him. Let the man be!

And everyone needs to chill a bit on Crazy Carl. Yes, he's off to a good start. But he's not doing anything that extraordinary. He's putting up numbers that would be considered par for the course for Big Frank. When Big Frank comes back, he will need to get most the at-bats at DH.

I will say this about Everett though, his second homer off Lohse, a monster shot, was a thing of beauty. Man, was he waiting for that fastball!

So Far So Good

The Sox are 6-2, winning close games, and relying on their starting pitching. There were two big questions marks in the starting rotation to start the season: will Hernandez stay healthy and will Contreras stay consistent. Its way too early to make any judgments, but so far the results look good. We'll get another look at El Duque tonight as he takes the mound against the Indians.

I actually have more faith in Hernandez staying healthy than Contreras staying consistent. I really think it's a matter of time before Contreras gets knocked around. The key will be how he responds. Let's face it, for the last two years the Sox played with only four starting pitchers and basically forfeited games in the fifth slot of the rotation. So they can afford for Contreras to blow up every now and then. But if he can limit those blow up games and go six innings 80% of his starts, the Sox will have a chance to win 90+ games this year.

Sandy Berger Should Be Sent to Prison

I live life on a pretty even keel. I like to think of myself as an optimist but with a firm grasp on reality. What I’m trying to get at is that it takes a lot for me to feel outraged.

But today I sit here in disbelief reading about the criminal acts of Sandy Berger. For months everyone knew he took classified documents out of the national archives as he prepared to testify before the 9/11 commission. He claimed he took them out by accident and then when he got home he accidentally destroyed them. Oh boy, does this man have accidents. Former President Bill Clinton backed him up. The press didn’t pursue the story.

Now the Washington Post has a story saying Berger will plead guilty to a misdemeanor and goes on to shed some light on what actually happened:

The terms of Berger's agreement required him to acknowledge to the Justice Department the circumstances of the episode. Rather than misplacing or unintentionally throwing away three of the five copies he took from the archives, as the former national security adviser earlier maintained, he shredded them with a pair of scissors late one evening at the downtown offices of his international consulting business.

So here we have the 9/11 Commission trying to figure out how the attacks happened and what could be done to prevent new attacks in the future. It was a commission trying to answer questions vital to this nation. It was a commission that needed the full cooperation of all witnesses.

And here we have Sandy Berger committing criminal acts in order to cover his ass, or Bill Clinton’s ass, or someone’s ass. We’ll never know as these documents have been destroyed. And then he lied to investigators and tried to cover up what he had done.

I wish this was the only outrage to the story but there is so much more. The press ignored this story even though the basic facts were known. Why wasn’t it pursued? They pursued the Bush national guard story for five years, but couldn’t pursue this one for five days.

But the biggest outrage is the potential plea agreement that may be reached. According to the Post, “he has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and accept a three-year suspension of his national security clearance”.

What? Are you kidding me? This man commits a crime in order to hide information from the 9/11 Commission and all he has to do is pay $10,000? And he will get his security clearance back! Please, this man belongs in jail.

We’ll see how this plays out but I can’t help but think we’ll be hearing plenty more about this story in the next few days.