But for the fact that Mark Buehrle surrendered a lead-off homer to Alfonso Soriano, then another solo blast to Aramis Ramirez a few batters later, the White Sox southpaw was brilliant, going seven strong innings (well, six strong innings and one poor one), in which he surrendered only two runs on four hits (two over the last six frames), with no walks, a hit batter, and four strikeouts. Unfortunately Buehrle was opposed by Carlos Zambrano, who was even better in a 5-1 Cubs victory that dropped Buehrle's record to 4-4. The White Sox ace reduced his ERA to a very respectable 3.39 and lowered his WHIP to an excellent 1.09. Home runs continue to be an issue for Buehrle as he's allowed 13 long balls in 93 innings (about one every seven frames), but he's done a better job of keeping the ball in the yard in June than he did in May. Ten of Buehrle's 14 starts have been Quality Starts, yet he has only four wins to show for it (he should be 7-1 based on our QS formula). A lot of that can be attributed to the fact that he plays for the worst hitting team in baseball. Prior to yesterday's start he was receiving only 4.38 runs of support per appearance, which actually leads the White Sox pitching staff, but is well below that of other top hurlers in the American League.
Although he didn't record a quality start last night, Lenny DiNardo wasn't bad and was a victim of shoddy defense more than poor pitching. DiNardo went into the sixth inning before being removed in favor of Colby Lewis with runners on first and second and one out in the fifth. DiNardo allowed six runs on seven hits and a walk in his 5 1/3 innings, but only two of the runs were earned, thanks to a throwing error by Eric Chavez in the first, a throwing error by Bobby Crosby in the sixth, and Lewis' inability to keep his inherited runners from scoring (he allowed a two-out, two-run double to Shawn Green that closed DiNardo's pitching line). Most of DiNardo's numbers looked pretty good as he tossed 69% of his pitches over for strikes, and coaxed 11 ground outs while getting five fly ball outs, and he most likely would have gone deeper into a game that should have been 2-1 in favor of the Mets after six innings. Of particular concern, however, is his K rate and K/BB ratio, neither of which is particularly impressive. He's fanning only .46 batters per inning (4.1 K/9 IP) and his K/BB ratio is 1.24. Fortunately he has a GB/FB ratio of 2.38 and he plays for a team that is second only to the Mets in their ability to turn batted balls into outs. That may be his saving grace.
David DeJesus' disappointing season continued as he went hitless last night to break a modest seven-game hitting streak and drop his AVG back to .269 only a day after he bumped it over .270 for the first time since May 27. DeJesus has been relatively hot in June, hitting .300/.385/.425 after hitting only .211/.297/.289 in May, but he hasn't homered since he belted his fourth on April 25. With four dingers in his first 83 at-bats, DeJesus was on pace to hit about 30 homers back in April; now he'll be lucky to hit 10. All of his numbers are down across the board, but his peripherals (EYE, K rate, BB rate) are almost identical to his career rates, so he's more or less the same hitter he's been since coming up to the bigs for good in 2004. His BHIP of .232 is well below his average of .270, making it clear he's run into a little bad luck. His June numbers suggest a rebound that should find his AVG improving steadily.
Daisuke Matsuzaka continues to throw a ton of pitches, but it doesn't seem to be having an adverse affect on him, as he rolled to another Quality Start, his fourth in four June starts and his 10th in 15 starts on the year. Dice-K tossed six innings and allowed only one run on five hits and five walks while striking out nine batters in a 2-1 win over the Padres, which improved Matsuzaka's record to 9-5. Since sporting a disappointing 5.45 ERA on May 3, Matsuzaka has allowed only 20 earned runs in his last 60 2/3 IP (2.97 ERA) to lower his earned run average to 4.01. The five free passes matched a season worst and I'd be a little concerned with his BB/9 IP this month (4.85), except that he's allowing fewer hits per 9 IP (6.57) as well, resulting in a WHIP of 1.27, which is better than the 1.38 he posted in May and almost as good as the 1.21 he had in April. It'll be interesting to see how the heavy workload will affect Dice-K down the stretch, though, as he's thrown fewer than 100 pitches only twice and averages 110 pitches per start.
Reggie Willits went 4-for-6 with two doubles, two RBIs and a run and raised his AVG on the year to .347. As Drew mentioned Willits may be benefiting from a bit of luck as his BHIP will attest, but his minor league numbers show a hitter with an ability to hit .300 and he's exhibited very good plate discipline since being called up to Triple-A Salt Lake City in 2006 and that has translated well to the majors. He's recorded an EYE of 1.18 in 233 career plate appearances, which is way too small a sample size to get excited about, but it's worth noting, and he has an excellent contact rate of 90%.
