Garland Earns A+ Against A's

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Apr 26, 2005 5:00PM

We're about 3 weeks into the Major League Baseball season, and the best pitcher in town probably wouldn't have made everybody's top 10 list going into the season. Demoted to the 5th starter's spot in the White Sox rotation, Jon Garland has been outstanding so far.

Last night, Garland pitched his second career shutout, allowing the Oakland A's just 4 hits during his complete game gem. For the season, Garland is now 4-0 with an ERA of 1.80. Has Garland finally figured it out? For years, he's been hyped as the next star pitcher for the Sox, but he's been maddeningly inconsistent. Having gone 36-36 over the past 3 seasons, maybe he's finally ready for that breakout season.

But Garland isn't the only one throwing well on the South Side. As a team, their pitching staff's combined ERA is now down to 2.97 -- best in the American League. Their staff is largely responsible for the teams amazing success so far. Their offense has been pretty anemic at times, yet the Sox have won 8 in a row and are a MLB-best 16-4.

Chicagoist realizes that this .800 winning percentage is unlikely to continue all season. Even we don't foresee a 130 win season. But clearly Ken Williams was right to shake things up a bit in the off-season. We predicted that the Sox would win 89 games and win the AL Central. Like with the Bulls, we may have the results right but underestimate the teams win total. Of course, we now think we maybe overestimated the Cubs' season win total...