MVN - Most Valuable Network

Buehrle Sparkles, Bullpen Fizzles

Mark Buehrle has really found his stride since June 1st, and he had another great outing last night. Unfortunately, the bullpen couldn’t hold the victory for him, and that has been a rare occurrence this year.

Buehrle threw seven solid innings with a season high eight strikeouts and no walks, before he ran into some trouble in the eighth inning. Octavio Dotel was called in to face his former team and he gave up an RBI double to Jose Guillen. The score was then 2-1 Royals, and it still seemed the Sox had a chance to come back. The nail was pounded into the coffin with Mark Teahen’s inside the park home run to deep center field off of Boone Logan.

The bullpen was atrocious last year, but it has been a crucial part of the team’s success so far this season. Scott Linebrink and Octavio Dotel were two big names added in the off-season to help get to Bobby Jenks in the ninth, but the other members of the pen have been just as important.

Names like Adam Russell, Boone Logan, Matt Thornton, and Nick Massett are not known nationally, but White Sox fans know who they are, and how important they have been.

As I have mentioned in previous articles, I don’t think there is anything more frustrating for a baseball fan than a bad bullpen. Games take two and a half to three hours on average, and it is a terrible feeling to watch a starter dominate for seven or eight innings and end up with a loss.

Luckily for the White Sox, that hasn’t been much of a problem this year. The club is in Texas tonight and they will head into the all-star break after a three game set.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 7:07 am and is filed under Mark Buehrle, Octavio Dotel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.