Floyd is Strasburg's Daddy

This was hands down my favorite game I have watched all season. The Sox, the terrible terrible 2010 White Sox kept child prodigy Strasburg winless today. That’s quite a feather to put in their cap. And speaking of caps, hats off to Gavin Floyd. 8 innings. One run. Oh, yeah, and a base hit! (That’s more than most of the position players can say today!) I know many of the Sox pitchers relished the chance to battle against Strasburg, but Gavin really showed him who was boss. The only thing that was sad about today was that he didn’t get to put one in the wins column. (Poor Gav-a-roo is 2-7 on the year.)

The first seven innings flew by quickly and quite well. Strasburg stopped being scary the second he let Juan Pierre score. Gavin had half as many strike-outs, but something like 3 times as many double plays and fewer fly outs than he’s had in a long time. I find this to be a good sign, because in years past, fly balls sometimes turned into home runs.

Finally, the Sox won in extra innings with some help from Alex Rios. However, there are a few, well, notable notes on the game I’d like to share with you. Gordon Beckham was the winner of a Silver Sombrero today and some guy on the Walgreens-er, Washington Nationals stole his at-bat song. The Sox have now gone 6 consecutive games without a homer run: a feat they haven’t achieved since 1993!

This was an exciting game, and I loved every minute of it. But let’s not pat ourselves on the back. Although the Sox have come within 2 games of .500 and only 5.5 games behind the Twins (believe it or not, that’s a big improvement), it just against terrible teams. The Cubs, The Pirates, the Nationals. These are all teams that are below .500 as well. In the National League. What will happen to the Sox when they start playing teams that are really contenders? Let’s not get excited just yet.

As for tomorrow, Peavy should be up despite the shoulder soreness. He will be backed by Viciedo. Really, tomorrow can be pretty exciting or cripplingly sad.