Chicago Tribune Reactions 8/26

While perusing the Tribune this morning, I came across an article written by Mark Gonzales titled "Seizing up again in the clutch" on page one. It's the summary of last night's game.

There's some things within the article that I find alarming. First and foremost, the Sox had been hitting .224 with RISP (runners in scoring position) in the 20 games leading up to last night. Gonzales goes on to describe the foiled scoring threat which the Red Sox practically had handed to us in the 8th inning. With men on first and third with no outs, Jermaine Dye (1-for-3) popped out for out number one. A.J. Pierzynski (0-for-3) struck out for #2. And Alex Rios (0-for-4) popped out to end the inning. You've got to figure that one of those three guys could, should come through with a hit.

Now, here's where shit gets real. When asked about the 8th inning clinch up of the proverbial "run scoring sphincter", Ozzie had this to say:

"That killed us. That's been our problem all year long. If you watch this ballclub closely, we're really bad with a runner at third and less than two out- maybe the worst team in baseball right now. If someone is worse than us, that's a record."

Which one is it? Are you "good enough to win the World Series" or are you "maybe the worst team in baseball"?

Out of curiosity, I dug up the stat of which Ozzie speaks. Thank you to the lovely folks over at Baseball Reference, there's a stat being tracked referred to as "PAs w/ less than 2 out, runner on 3rd, runner scored" under the category of advances. You can see what I'm looking at here. Ozzie's analysis of his club's performance is actually pretty spot on. The Sox are 24th in the MLB in advancing a runner home with less than 2 outs.

Here's where it gets fun; the six teams worse than the Sox at getting a guy to successfully trot in the last 90 feet, in order of appearance:

25. Arizona Diamondbacks
26. Detroit Tigers
27. Washington Nationals
28. San Francisco Giants
29. San Diego Padres
30. Chicago Cubs

Can anyone on a Chicago team drive in the man on third?

Go forth, today, and be clutch.

-=-=-

Further evidence revealing that your job sucks:

Dye, Pierzynski, & Rios went 1-for-10 last night.
Estimated gross income for their .100 performance: $145,061.73