The Ticket Chest

Huge Weekend for Chicago MLB Baseball Teams — Cubs & White Sox Both Sweep Weekend Series

Monday, April 26th, 2010 | Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, MLB, Sports | No Comments

WOW — what a great weekend for both Chicago MLB baseball teams.  Both the Cubs and White Sox pulled off weekend sweeps to get back on track after a slow start to the 2010 MLB schedule.

The Cubs outscored the Brewers 25-4 in their 3-game weekend series at Miller Park in Milwaukee.  The Cubs bats finally came to life and the pitching was just as impressive.  Kosuke Fukudome and Tyler Colvin each hit 2 home runs in the series and Ryan Theriot racked up 9 hits in the series (with 14 hits in his last 5 games) to raise his batting average to .329.  Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly and Randy Wells picked up the wins and Carlos Zambrano made his 1st appearance out of the bullpen in Saturday’s win (although he did give up an earned run).

The Cubs are now 9-10.  They trail the 1st place St. Louis Cardinals by 2 and one half 5 games in the National League Central Division and open up a 7-game homestand against the Washington Nationals and the Arizona Diamondbacks.  If Carlos Silva and the Cubs win tonight at Wrigley Field, the Cubs will be back at .500 with a 10-10 record.

The White Sox, meanwhile, took 3 straight games from the Seattle Mariners on home runs in their final at-bat in each game at U.S. Cellular Field over the weekend.  In Friday’s 7-6 win, Andruw Jones’ 2nd home run of the game on his birthday gave the Sox the walk-off win in the bottom of the 9th inning.  Saturday’s win was even more thrilling.  After Bobby Jenks surrendered 2 runs in the top of the 9th inning in a 2-2 tie, the Sox found themselves in a big hole.  But with one out, Paul Konerko hit his 6th home run of the season to get the Sox within 1.  Then with 2 outs, Carlos Quentin walked to set up Alex Rios’ game-winning, walk-off home run to deep left field that gave the White Sox the 5-4.  Paul Konerko followed up his Saturday performance with another big home run in the bottom of the 8th inning that broke a 2-2.  3 straight days – 3 straight game-winning home runs for the White Sox in their last at-bat.  Incredible!

The White Sox are now 8-11.  They trail the 1st place Minnesota Twins by 5 games in the American League Central Division and start a 6-game road trip against the Rangers in Texas and the Yankees in New York.

These 2 teams are far from being playoff teams right now, but more games like this and we could be seeing a “Red Line Series” in Chicago very very soon…

Tags: Alex Rios, Andruw Jones, Kosuke Fukudome, Paul Konerko, Ryan Theriot, Tyler Colvin

Not a good week for Alex Rios

Saturday, June 6th, 2009 | MLB | No Comments

(Yahoo Sports) No one would quibble that Randy Johnson(notes) deserves props for his 300th victory, but the San Francisco Giants left-hander is one of 24 pitchers to reach that mark. Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Alex Rios(notes) stands alone for what he did Thursday, and he went all but unnoticed.

Rios struck out in all five of his plate appearances in a 6-5 loss to the Angels in the Rogers Centre. He is not the first player to have done so, of course. Forty-one players since 1954 have whiffed five times in five plate appearances in a nine-inning regular-season game, according to Baseball-Reference.com, the terrific on-line research tool. (Reggie Sanders(notes) is the only player to whiff all five times in a postseason game dating back to 1903; he did so for the Reds in Game 3 of the 1995 division series against the Dodgers).

But here’s where Rios sets himself apart. He is the only player in the last 55 years to have had two nine-inning games in which he whiffed in all five of his plate appearances. Rios had his first five-K game on July 29, 2006. (Two other players, Dick Allen and Andruw Jones(notes), also performed a double 5-K, but they needed extra innings).

Rios also became the first player to whiff five times in five plate appearances in the same game in which another player went five for five, in this case Blue Jays teammate Adam Lind(notes), who tied a club record with eight consecutive hits over two games.

Being fitted again with what is known as the platinum sombrero obviously didn’t set well with Rios, who can be seen on YouTube cursing a heckler after he walked past a child seeking an autograph while out on the town Thursday night.

A review of Rios’ afternoon: He took a called third strike in the first inning on a 92-mph fastball from Angels right-hander John Lackey(notes). And he went down swinging in his final four at-bats: Lackey got him on an 84-mph curve in the fourth, an 82-mph slider in the sixth and an 83-mph slider in the seventh, and Brian Fuentes(notes) whiffed him on a 77-mph slider in the ninth.

In all, Rios faced 22 pitches. None of his at-bats went more than five pitches, and he made contact with just three of them: foul balls in at-bats in the first, seventh and ninth innings.

And here is where it gets a little weird. While this was the first time one player whiffed five times while another went five for five in the same game, I was curious if it had happened on the same day. Turns out it has happened four times, and the most recent was Rios’ previous five-K game. While Rios was whiffing five times in Oakland, White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski(notes) was going five for five in Baltimore, and Tampa Bay utilityman Tomas Perez(notes) was doing the same in Yankee Stadium.

And yes, five-K games are increasing in frequency. Between 1954 and 1970, only five players struck out in all five plate appearances in a nine-inning game. It has happened eight times since the start of the 2006 season.

One last Rios whiff note: He also struck out in his last two at-bats Wednesday, giving him seven straight Ks and prompting this observation from Toronto manager Cito Gaston on how overmatched he was by the Angels: “They’ll call him on his cell, that’s how much they had his number.”

Tags: Alex Rios