White Sox 1: Angels 5

MVP has to go to the sky tonight. Without Erstad losing that ball in the gloaming, it would have been a much closer game. The offense still sucks, and relied on a lot of Sox mistakes to provide the winning margin tonight.

But credit where credit's due, and that goes to Kelvim, who was really pretty sharp. he gave the Angels seven strong innings, worked out of two significant jams, and allowed only eight baserunners, while striking out four. Better yet, he did it in 95 pitches. Watch his next start. It's an underrated area of analysis, but often times you'll see a pitcher on a fairly limited pitch count look really sharp in his next outing. And one thing the Angels have done almost better than any other team in the Scioscia era is manage their starters' workloads. That's an area where they don't get enough credit.

Back to the offense, at least it was a team effort tonight. Everyone, save Figgins, reached base at least once, and five different players scored. They got some serious breaks from the White Sox "defense", but props to the OC for coming through in a clutch situation and "breaking the game open", which for the Angels, means taking more than a one run lead.

Scot Shields is also starting to sharpen up. He was excellent over two perfect innings, striking out four in the process. Speaking of striking, take a look at the batting averages of the White Sox line up, but avoid it if you've got a weak stomach. Only Darin Erstad is hitting over .250, and Tadahito Iguchi is the only other player hitting over .216. Man, that's awful. They started six guys hitting under .210, two of whom are under .200, and a third is in double digits. Yowza.

Schmendrick takes the mound tomorrow, and against that lineup, he should roll. Jon "Granada Hills" Garland takes the mound for the Sox, with fellow alum Garret Anderson likely still sidelined. It's a day game, starting at about 3:00 my time. The good news is I should be back from Cog Hill (Dubsdread) by then. Got an appointment for a clubfitting after our round, weather permitting. Yeah, it rains here after March. I know, it sucks.