It's baseball season again, and you know what that means, more games I can't watch because network TV's selection sucks. Worse than with the Bulls or Blackhawks, with baseball I have to deal with not only the lack of White Sox games, but the overabundance of Cubs games. I didn't get to catch the Sox opener, but it looked like a pretty decent game. Buhrle didn't have the greatest game: five innings, six hits, two runs, three strikeouts and a three-six-oh ERA. The bullpen had a better night with five strikeouts and one hit in four innings. If we can stay that strong from the pen the rest of the season we'll be in great shape.
As far as hitting, our new leadoff man had a less than stellar start. Dewayne Wise had three strikeouts in four at bats, which just puts more doubt on a position that was a big worry for us heading into the season. Other than that, the batting was decent. Dye, Fields, and Thome stood out, and Chris Getz had a pair of hits. We're not leaving too many people one base, especially in scoring position, which has plagued us in the past. One problem is the number of RBI's, we had only four with three of them coming on Thome's three-run blast. A win is a win and having hitters come up big in the clutch is good, but you'd like to see some better production. My fear is that if you rely on the big bats constantly, as soon as they get quiet you go on a slide, as has happened to the south siders in the past. The rest of the division seems to be struggling, thankfully, although the Twins faced one of the league leading pitchers in ERA so far. It's still hard to shake that feeling like we may be retreading old ground, though.
On the north side, the Cubs are doing a better job of getting runners in the old fashioned way. They got a few less hits in their opener than the Sox, but their scoring was more consistent and came in the form of RBI's rather than homers. Zambrano was even more impressive, finishing with a 1.50 ERA. Their hitting was also very consistent.
Watching their second game right now, Dempster is looking very impressive, pitching a shut-out through four. The Cubs are in the lead, but they haven't capitalized on certain opportunities. It looks like they left a few runners on base last night, and they're having some similar hitting problems tonight. Soriano has struck out in his first two at bats (what did I say?), and although Lee has driven a run in, they've failed to capitalize on some good scoring opportunities which they'll regret if their pitching doesn't hold up for the rest of the game.
Overall, I haven't seen anything from either team that's going to make me change my predictions. The Cubs' division looks pretty devoid of competition for the top spot, and the biggest threat against the Sox still seems to be the Twins. Similar to last year, the AL Central will most likely come down to which team gets the better of the other in their season series, the Sox or the Twins. Pitching is solid as always for the south siders and the hitters can definitely go long, but how they play when the long ball isn't there will be a key factor. The NL Central looks to be a lock for the Cubs. Their pitching looks terrific, except for Kevin Gregg who had a nine point oh ERA in the one inning he pitched. Their hitting is going to be what makes or break them, with consistency being the biggest question. As they say, though, and as Cubs fans know all too well (I LOVE rubbing it in), the beginning part of the season can be deceiving. Nothing is for sure this early in the season, but I feel confident in my predictions. Will this finally be the year we get a cross-town World Series? At this point, nobody can predict anything that far down the road, except that if it did happen, the Sox would win.
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