The Sox have gone through the rotation five times now and have records of:
1-4
5-0
4-1
4-1
4-1
One of those doesn’t look like the others.
Cleveland fans sure showed some class last night. Jim Thome is a great hitter and seems to be a real good guy. He left Cleveland after being offered a contract that was about $20 million less than what he received from the Phillies. Cleveland was going into a rebuilding mode and didn’t want to pay Thome market value so he left. No hard feelings, right?
What do the Cleveland fans, at the least the few who showed up at the park, do? They boo him and hold up signs calling him a traitor, and “Jim Phoney”. Nice.
Ex-Cub whipping boy Corey Patterson was back where he always wanted to be last night, batting leadoff. Corey has a decent average of .278 and has 7 stolen bases but nothing else about his stats suggest his game has changed.
He only has one walk leaving his on-base percentage in familiar territory below .300. And believe it or not he has been even more impatient at the plate this year looking at a miniscule 2.47 pitches per plate appearance, down from 3.39 p/pa in his career. That it the lowest p/pa in all of baseball. I know Brian Roberts is hurt, but the Orioles have to have someone more suitable for the leadoff position.
As far last night's Orioles game, they ended up losing when an even bigger ex-Cubs whipping boy, Latroy Hawkins, let 3 runs score in a third of an inning. Corey ended 1-5 with one K. He did see 21 pitchers in 5 at bats.
It looks like Baltimore has become a popular destination for Cub rejects with Sosa, Patterson and Hawkins all finding a home, if not their games, there in the last two years. If I were Jacque Jones, I might start looking at some Baltimore real estate.