One-Hit Wonder

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Apr 16, 2007 3:01PM

Chicagoist wants to know where exactly the White Sox offense has been. Did they leave it down in Arizona? Because for a team to hold an opponent to one hit yet lose the game is quite an impressive feat! In fact, only 10 times in the past 15 seasons have teams with fewer than two hits won a game.

The White Sox dropped a 2-1 game Sunday to the Cleveland Indians, a day after scoring no runs on Saturday. Indians' ace C.C. Sabathia shut down the Sox hitters, allowing just five hits and one run while striking out 10 over eight innings.

Ten games into the season, the White Sox are 11th in the American League in runs scored at just 3.7 runs/game average. The offense was supposed to be the team's strength, but half of the regulars have batting averages hovering around the Mendoza Line, and the power numbers aren't what we expected yet either. Maybe it's too soon to panic, though, having faced Sabathia twice and Johan Santana already in just 10 games.

After a ugly 2006, the White Sox starting pitching has actually been fairly good since Jose Contreras' opening-day debacle. Javier Vasquez had looked strong so far. Even rookie John Denks has pitched well — a 3.97 ERA and 10 strikeouts with only three walks — in spite of a 0-2 record so far. The Sox have provided the rookie literally zero run support in his two starts.

Photo via Reuters/Ron Kuntz.