Regular Season Week One: April 1-6
Results:
4/1: Valencia Stars @ Chicago Black Sox - Win, 6-7.
Black Sox Win 7-6 Walk-Off
W: G. Sosa (1-0) L: B. Butler (0-1) .
HR - VAL: Á. Zalapa (1) CHI: H. Hang (1)
4/2: Valencia Stars @ Chicago Black Sox - Loss, 7-4.
Stars Get Road Win, 7-4
W: J. Martínez (1-0) L: P. Jaramillo (0-1) S: B. Butler (1).
HR - VAL: J. Guerra (1), Á. Zalapa (2), R. Pagán (1), C. Love (1)
4/3: Omaha Hawks @ Chicago Black Sox - Loss, 13-6.
Yong Helps Hawks Run Win Streak to 3
W: J. Arellano (1-0) L: L. Gonzáles (0-1) S: T. Medine (1).
HR - OMA: E. Díaz (2), T. Yong 2 (2), E. Morales (2)
4/4: Omaha Hawks @ Chicago Black Sox - Win, 7-8.
Black Sox Bang Out 8-7 Win Versus Omaha
W: J. Alfonzo (1-0) L: R. Amaya (0-1) S: G. Sosa (1).
HR - OMA: A. Ly 2 (2) CHI: M. Simpson (1), A. Budding (1)
4/5: Omaha Hawks @ Chicago Black Sox - Win, 9-12.
Dave Slugs Black Sox to 12-9 Win
W: B. Smith (1-0) L: S. Clulow (0-1) S: G. Sosa (2).
HR - OMA: T. Yong (3), E. Morales (3), M. Deórtez (1) CHI: D. Dave 2 (2), M. Simpson (2), F. Reyes (1)
4/6: Yellow Springs Nine @ Chicago Black Sox - Win, 0-2.
Yellow Springs Bats Go Silent in 2-0 Loss
W: A. Moelling (1-0) L: C. Valle (0-1) S: F. Salgado (1).
HR - CHI: A. Budding (2)
Top Performers
Hao Hang, RF: 23 AB, 9 H, 1 HR, 6 RBI, .391 AVG, 1.247 OPS
Aarnaud Budding, DH: 17 AB, 8 H, 2 HR, 5 RBI, .471 AVG, 1.324 OPS
Diesel Dave, C: 24 AB, 7 H, 2 HR, 7 RBI, .292 AVG, .971 OPS
PQS Scores
April 1-6, 2042
Pitcher | Date | Opp | Decision | 6+ Innings | H<IP | 5 Ks | 3K=>BB | 0 HR | Total PQS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A. Moelling | 04-01-42 | Valencia | ND | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
P. Jaramillo | 04-02-42 | Valencia | L | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
L. Gonzáles | 04-03-42 | Omaha | L | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
J. Nicto | 04-04-42 | Omaha | ND | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
D. Bates | 04-05-42 | Omaha | ND | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
A. Moelling | 04-06-42 | Yellow Springs | W | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
So, the Benny Vitale era got off to a decent start as the Black Sox broke out of the gate 4-2 … wait a minute. That sounds way too much like something those hacks over at BNN would say in one of their "official roundups.” That ain’t the spirit of the Hot Take, now is it? The spirit of the hot take is to howl at the moon and berate the Gods of Baseball for the indignities they’ve heaped upon our boys in black pinstripes … so, let’s see … just for fun, let’s take a look at a couple of those opening week ERAs, eh? How about last season’s Sox Pitcher of the Year Pepe Jaramillo, who got savaged in his first start of the season against Valencia: 6 hits, 6 runs, 4 home runs in 3 innings. Let me break out the ‘ol calculator here and see what that works out to: ah, yes. An 18.00 ERA. Way to impress the home crowd there, Pepe … OK, now, how about hotshot, “oh let’s baby him so he doesn’t hurt his little army-warmy” Luis Gonzáles, who also got savaged in his first start, this one against his old club, Omaha: 7 hits, 6 runs, 2 homers in 3.2 innings. Man, the calculator’s already starting to overheat … this one works out to an ERA of 14.73. Wow. Pitching depth. Can’t beat it, can you?
OK, fine, it wasn’t all gloom and doom. Hao Hang did his Hao Hang thing (see top performers, above) and is on pace for a season-ending WAR total of 13.7. Let’s just go ahead and chisel that in stone, shall we? … And the Tomás Durán leadoff experiment got off to a grand start: .360/.407/.520 and 6 runs scored. He’s only on pace for an 8.0 WAR total, though. Laggard.
Then, there was that game against Yellow Springs to close out the week. You know the one I mean: the 2-0 smackdown where the Sox pitching staff actually, you know, pitched. No runs. Four hits. Amayas Moelling pitched like an ace instead of a chump. Reliever Francisco Salgado paused in his quest for a worse ERA than Pepe Jaramillo to close things out in the ninth. So, shut the frickin’ door, we shut out the Nine. Bliss.
We can’t leave here, though, without noting the abomination at the top of the Frick Heartland standings: Des Moines. Frickin’ Des Moines. The guys who have that creepy logo, the bat with the human face who wears that little red hat - which is a joke, because Des Moines doesn’t even wear red hats. So, where’d that damn hat come from, then? Straight from the Hellmouth, is where. This, then, is how the Gods of Baseball chose to torment us this week. Sure, let the Sox go 4-2 to start the season. How cute. How quaint. But let’s have demon-spawn Des Moines go 4-1! Can’t do 5-0, that would be too obvious. But 4-1 is just right: let’s let the Kernels sit atop the division, with Chicago just half a game behind. Close enough to taste the rarified air of first place but blocked … barricaded … from the promised land by a bunch of bats with scrunched up little red hats.
Oh, the humanity!
The Coming Week
Three games vs. Yellow Springs at Chicago
Two games vs. Portland at Portland
One game vs. California at California