In the Milwaukee Ned Yost has gotten a lot of ink batting his pitcher 8th, over in St. Louis Tony LaRussa started the trend, and now on the Southside of Chicago Ozzie Guillen has decided to bat his best clutch hitter in the 8th spot. I suppose you could look at it as Crede batting in the double cleanup spot, but it doesn’t make much sense to me, especially considering the Pale Hose have been struggling with men on base. Another thing that doesn’t make much sense is batting Jim Thome, who walks alot, ahead of Paul Konerko, who hits into alot of doubleplays. My lineup would be this: 1) Swisher CF, 2) Cabrera SS, 3) Konerko 1B, 4) Thome DH, 5) Dye RF, 6) Crede 3B, 7) Pierzynski C, 8) Quentin LF, 9) Uribe 2B. Also when Juan Uribe is leading off an inning and we need some runs, I’d pinch-hit Pablo Ozuna for him. I know it’s only been a couple of games against the Yanks, but we seem to be in a fog right now. Even though we’re still in first place, the Tigers are coming, scoring 19 runs last night.
The White Sox couldn’t touch Mike Mussina while he was out there, while the Yanks scored six off “Good Stuff” Javier Vazquez. Two of the Sox hits off Moose were a check swing opposite field hit to third by Jim Thome, taking advantage of the shift, and Joe Crede’s solo blast to left, taking advantage of the fact that the leftfielder was playing him inside the park, rather than over the fence. Tonite I’ll be back out there as the Sox & Gavin Floyd try to avoid a three game sweep, after a 6-4 loss last night.