White Sox 10, Tigers 6: Positives and negatives

April 13, 6:12 PMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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The big news of the day for the White Sox is that Jerry Owens was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte to replace Dewayne Wise, who will be on the disabled list for four to six weeks with a separated shoulder. The injury happened on a spectacular catch made by Wise that robbed Ramon Santiago of what would have been a two-run double in the bottom of the fifth. Had Wise not made that play, we could be talking about a different outcome to this game.

Wise was starting to swing the bat a bit better, but still had yet to take a walk either in spring training or regular season in 2009. That being said, if Owens plays the way Wise was playing in the last two or three games before getting hurt, it'll be better than expected from Owens.

This injury to wise better mean Brian Anderson sees more at-bats, though. It would appear that Anderson finally has an opportunity to play every day for the first time since the first half of 2006, and it'll be interesting to see how he handles his chance to gain a pretty strong foothold on the centerfield spot.

Anyways, to the positives and negatives...

Positives

• Milestones, in historic fashion. Heading into the game, both Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko were sitting on home run No. 299 in their respective careers. Dye hit No. 300 in the second off Zach Miner and, not to be outdone,Konerko hit his No. 300 in the very next at-bat. It was the first time in MLB history that players had hit milestone home runs in back-to-back at-bats. The look on Dye's face in the dugout as Konerko rounded the bases was absolutely priceless, and he gave Konerko a leaping hip bump when he got back into the dugout (I had no clue Konerko could jump like that—must have been the special occasion). Seeing Dye and Konerko do what they did was really a great moment for both players, and seeing them do it back-to-back made it even more special. The back-to-back 300th career home runs will be something that will go down in White Sox lore, that's for sure. 
• Konerko, again. After a rough 2008, Konerko has done everything possible to make everyone forget about last season. He crushed the ball in spring training and has looked very good at the plate all year, but not to the point that he did today. Konerko took great at-bats the entire game, going 4/5 with a home run, two doubles, a single, and four RBIs. This was anything but a fluky day by Konerko—he battled and battled at the plate until he got a pitch he could handle and drive it somewhere. Not too many people expected Konerko to repeat his 2008 numbers, but for those who did, performances like he had today are just another reason why he's going to put up some nice statistics in 2009 provided he stays healthy.
• Dye, again. He went 3/5 with two runs scored and an RBI. After a rough spring, Dye has been crushing the ball to begin the year, which is always good to see when an aging veteran has a slow spring. The double Dye hit was a classic showing of power from Dye, who drilled a low and away fastball into the right-centerfield gap. When Dye's going well, he shows off great power up the middle and the other way, and that's exactly what he did today.
• Carlos Quentin. There were some legitimate concerns coming into the year about Quentin's power being sapped by the wrist surgery he had last September, but all Quentin has done is hit four home runs in the first seven games, including two today. The second one he hit was on a 3-2 curveball at the knees—a pitch you don't hit out of a park as spacious as Comerica Park without some good wrist power. He went 3/5 with a walk and four RBIs on the day, so he and Konerko accounted for 80 percent of the White Sox' RBIs on the game.
• Josh Fields' defense. Fangraphs has the first installment of 2009 UZRs up, and given Fields' solid play at third base so far this year, it should be no surprise that his UZR was at 1.1 entering the week. He made another great play going to his backhand side to save a run and a big inning in the eighth, and that's really the area where Fields has shown the most improvement. He's been able to field just about anything going to his right this year, which if I recall correctly was the biggest problem he had in 2007. Maybe there really is something to "Camp Cora."
• The bullpen. It wasn't their best performance as a unit—neither DJ Carrasco, Matt Thornton, nor Scott Linebrink looked particularly good—but they held the Tigers at bay for four innings to preserve the win for Gavin Floyd. Thornton and Linebrink still have yet to allow a run in 2009 while Carrasco did a good job putting his nightmarish outing Friday night behind him with two scoreless innings. 

Negatives

• Gavin Floyd. The last thing you want to do as a starting pitcher when your offense spots you six, eight, ten runs is to walk batters. Floyd walked seven Tigers hitters Monday in what was, for all intents and purposes, a pretty bad outing. Floyd never had his command in this one, and if that continues to be a problem for Floyd I can guarantee you that he struggles in 2009. He's not going to be able to get away with walking three or four batters a start, let alone seven. Maybe it was the cold weather in Detroit this afternoon, but he's going to have to come out in his next start under the pleasant dome conditionsof Tropicana Field and throw strikes.
• Brent Lillibridge. I'll admit, Lillibridge didn't look so bad in his first couple of at-bats. He picked up a big double in the White Sox' four-run third, but that was his only hit of the day in six at-bats. He also struck out three times in those six at-bats which, for a leadoff hitter who had a .294 OBP in AAA last year, is really not a good sign. He doesn't make enough contact and he doesn't get on base enough to warrant much playing time when Chris Getz comes back hopefully by the end of the series. Lillibridge will serve fine as a late-inning pinch-runner, but outside of that, he doesn't have much of a role on this team until further notice.