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Originally Posted by canadiancreed
I thikn you used up your good luck in getting the file back up and running  |
^^^Gets it. Nevertheless, a'marching we will go -- I mean, we can't lose forever, can we? Eventually
Mark Buehrle's turn will come up in the rotation...and whaddya know?
To avoid being swept by the lowly
Devil Rays, a fiasco that I'd feel slightly worse about were it not for the fact that, well, this ain't going to affect 2007 in the slightest,
The Buehrle One can go on 3 days' rest, and so he will. Yeah, I don't care about being swept by the
Fishies at all. Just another day at the ol' ballpark.
We'll tackle
Aaron "
Lemon Harang Pie", who beat us a few months ago, without our
Buddha, who could use some time to meditate. If we're lucky, he'll come up with one of those wise aphorisms for all of our problems.
"If a man speaks or acts with an unpure mind, suffering follows him as the wheel of the cart follows the beast that draws it."
After the top of the first frame, it might just be that our cure involves a treat for our sweet tooth, or perhaps a
Harang girl (
yuk yuk) -- no, we don't score, but we get a hit and a walk in the same inning, a rare feat these days.
Buehrle's shaky in the bottom of the first --
The Woonsocket Rocket hits one of his namesakes to left, and it takes a spectacular
Borchardian effort in center to rob
Luis Matos of a hit.
Josh Phelps follows with a stinger to the left side, but
Julio Lugo gobbles it up and starts a swift little 6-4-3 double play, putting the inning in the books with just 7 pitches to
The Buehrle Man's credit. That'll do. But don't expect it to keep happening.
Even though
Julio Lugo pokes a one-out single in the second,
Harang still faces the minimum in getting through the inning unscathed, thanks to
The Hacktastic One's ineptitude afoot.
Buehrle adds a '1' in front of his first inning pitch count, but doesn't labor much in the second, and he starts the third by thumping a double into the right field corner. Brilliantly, we don't get the ball out of the infield after that, and get a big old goose egg for our troubles. A miffed
Buehrle retires
Toby Hall on a first-pitch fly out and strikes out the next two hitters,
Harang Pie and
Baldelli. Save some of that rage for the fifth,
Mark!
We get a couple more hits in the fourth, but
The Hacktastic One and
The Mime just can't hit that "
little bingo", and a'runners we will strand.
Luis Matos leads off the fourth with a double, and after an out and a walk, a pickle ensues when
Damian Rolls legs out an infield hit in a bang-bang play. I argue, to no avail, and foolishly bring the infield in to try to cut off the lead run with
Deivi Cruz at the bat. Predictably, he singles past
Ramon Vazquez, scoring two, a wound that becomes three by inning's end.
Buehrle singles to start the fifth, his second hit. Trying to ignite a spark under the offense, I tell
Ramon Vazquez to hit and
The Buehrle One to get his ass in gear -- and lo and behold, a line drive --
Right at
Deivi Cruz. Double play.
The mistakes continue.
Brad Fullmer's pegged out on a failed hit-and-run in the sixth as I try to overcompensate for my mistakes, and we stumble through the next few innings.
Brian Buchanan strikes out on a high pitch to end the eighth, and I go and get myself tossed, just for the hell of it.
It doesn't help. But moving on to
Toronto just might. As creed will tell you, they're a bunch of lousy bastards. Good thing -- we need 'em to be.
CHW 0 TB 3
WP: A. Harang (7-13) - 7.1 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K
LP: M. Buehrle (14-10) - 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 6 K
S: R. King (17)
Game Ball Goes To... Well, it definitely ain't me this time. How about
Joe Crede, who actually had two hits -- nearly doubling his season total!