2

No, that was not my submission for the “guess the attendance” game at Progressive field today. 2 as in the second game of the year, the second day of raking, the second day of giving up more runs than we probably should have while still keeping in line for the win. Having listened to game 1 on the radio, today was my first actual look at the 2011 squad. As nice as it was to watch the mashing continue, seeing the empty seats far outnumber the filled ones in Cleveland drove home a very important fact. This is Cleveland. Nonetheless, I was impressed with the way each and every one of the Sox players swung the bat today.

A plus: More Carlos Quentin. Not only did he make solid contact, he made solid contact to right center. That’s the Carlos stroke that we need to be seeing on a regular basis. He keeps taking pitches that way with authority and he then has the freedom to yank 400 footers to straightaway left from time to time.

A minus: Brent Morel had a small hiccup. Well, 2 hiccups as it will show up in the stat sheet. He had some trouble with a play at third and then in an effort to make up for it sailed one over Konerko’s head earning him 2 quick errors. That’s not the play I’m referring to, though. And actually, it’s not really Morel’s hiccup. It belongs to Ozzie. With runners on 1st and 2nd Ozzie called for Brent to lay down a sacrifice bunt, which he failed to execute on, resulting at a force out of Pierzynski at 3rd base. It makes absolutely no sense to bunt in that situation. To me it was just a chance for the skipper to make sure that the new kid will do what he wants, and maybe that’s an important point to make to him. However everybody on the team is swinging the bat very well right now. For what reason would you take the bat out of any of their hands? Rarely is a bunt actually worth anything. It’s worth less for every little bit the hitter is more capable than Mario Mendoza. This was a bit of an issue in the past when the same thing was constantly being asked of Gordon Beckham hitting out of the 2 hole. I’d like to see slumps NOT get jump started out of the dugout.

Let’s keep the swinging going and take a break from the mistake by the lake.