2007: (April 2, 4-5) Cleveland Indians @ Chicago White Sox

[JoseA]

Cleveland Indians vs. Chicago White Sox
At The U.S. Cellular Field



Mon., April 2 @ 1:05 p.m. CT
TV: CSN | Radio: WSCR 670

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C.C. Sabathia vs. Jose Contreras
(0-0, -.--)--------(0-0, -.--)

[JoseA]

Wednesday, April 4
6:10 PM CT
CSN, MLB.TV

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Jake Westbrook vs. Jon Garland
(0-0, -.--)--------(0-0, -.--)

Thursday, April 5
11:35 AM CT
WGN, MLB.TV

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Jeremy Sowers vs. Mark Buehrle
(0-0, -.--)--------(0-0, -.--)

[JoseA]

I think the White Sox will win opening day. Sabathia got hit with a line drive in ST, so he may be fazed. Expect us to come out firing Monday.

As for Wednesday I think we will win a very good pitching duel, and depending on the starter on Thurday, it is going to be a close one.

[JoseA]

White Sox outmatched from the start




Darin Erstad homered in his first White Sox at-bat, the sixth player to do so.

Contreras exits in the second

CHICAGO -- Following Cleveland's 12-5 shellacking of the White Sox before an Opening Day sellout of 38,088 on Monday at U.S. Cellular Field, the first postgame question asked of catcher A.J. Pierzynski was whether Jose Contreras' horrific start stemmed from location issues.
"You can start with that," said Pierzynski with an uneasy smile.

Simply put, anything that could go wrong did for Contreras during the first Opening Day trip to the mound of his career. All the excitement and frenzy built up around what figures to be a promising 2007 season for the White Sox was put to a sudden halt on the second pitch of the game, when Grady Sizemore became the first Indians player to hit a leadoff home run on Opening Day since Julio Franco did so off Charlie Hough in Texas on April 8, 1984.

Recap

[JoseA]

Tough opening day, Contreas looked lost out there completely. Hopefully Erstad will continue his success with the White Sox

Good game today at least! The White Sox are winning 7-5 after 5 innings. Thome jacked one out of the stadium too....

[JoseA]

Ouch, Sizemore just hit a big two run home run and the Indians are now leading 8-7! No!!!! Westbrook and Garland both had bad outings. So far everyone who came in out of the pen has allowed a run.

Iguchi also hit a homer and Erstad is staying hot. Overall the batting is doing pretty good this season, it has been the pitching that needs help.

[JoseA]

Another Tough Loss, 7-8




Andy Marte's two-run home run was part of a big offensive day for Cleveland on Wednesday.

Bullpen surrenders lead in seventh inning as Chicago falls

CHICAGO -- The game-time temperature sat at 31 degrees and the wind chill hovered around 20 prior to the first pitch of Wednesday's contest between the White Sox and Indians. But the offenses for both teams sufficiently heated up U.S. Cellular Field during Cleveland's 8-7 victory before a frozen crowd announced at 26,337.
With the White Sox clinging to a one-run lead in the seventh inning, Mike MacDougal issued a two-out walk to ninth-place hitter Andy Marte. MacDougal had struck out three straight Cleveland hitters prior to the Marte at-bat.

Left-handed reliever Matt Thornton replaced MacDougal to face left-handed-hitting Grady Sizemore, and Sizemore hit the first pitch for his second home run in two games. The Cleveland leadoff hitter scored two runs in the victory.

Recap

[JoseA]

I honestly thought that the White Sox would come back in the 9th. We had runners on 1st and 2nd with one out. Oh well.....Did anyone see the last catch in the game, that was a web gem!

Once again bad pitching today costed us, Erstad continued playing great, and overall solid batting. This is a tough loss to take....

[JoseA]

White Sox rally for win




Starter Mark Buehrle suffered a forearm bruise in the second inning.

A.J. completes comeback

CHICAGO -- Using two singles, a pitcher's errant pickoff throw, an intentional walk and a hit batsman to push across the deciding run during the White Sox 4-3 victory over Cleveland Thursday, pretty much defines doing whatever it takes to pick up a much needed win for Ozzie Guillen's crew.
Roberto Hernandez (0-1), the losing pitcher in this ninth-inning battle of attrition, looked at the final at-bat against A.J. Pierzynski in a slightly different manner. The veteran reliever thought Pierzynski getting hit in the left arm simply was a case of the White Sox lightning rod for controversy, often with the game on the line, just being A.J.

In fact, Hernandez wasn't even sure if Pierzynski should have been awarded first base.

Recap

[JoseA]

Good to see the White Sox wins at least one game in the series! When Buehlre got hit that scared me, hopefully his injuries are not to severe....

That was kind of odd (and funny I guess....) when Nick Masset came in and beamed the next batter on the helmet. Luckily he wasn't injured, it was just a nasty pitch!