White Sox fans got a pleasant surprise Thursday afternoon when Triple-A callup Carlos Torres (right) fired seven shutout innings and earned his first major-league win in a 5-0 whitewashing of the Cubbies.
Unlike his previous outing against Cleveland on Aug. 8 -- where Torres walked half the people in the free world -- the right-hander pounded the strike zone all day and let his defense work behind him. He struck out six, walked none and gave up only five hits.
Here's the question: Did Torres dominate because he had good stuff? Or do the Cubs just really suck? You have to figure it was a little bit of both. Torres had his offspeed repetoire working and he kept the Cubbie hitters off balance all afternoon.
However, I must say that the inept hitting of Alfonso Soriano really helped Torres out. Every time Torres got in trouble, up stepped Soriano to kill the rally.
First and third, one out in the fourth? Soriano fans on a change up in the dirt to kill the momentum. Torres gets out of the inning.
Jake Fox leads off the seventh with a double? Soriano strikes out swinging on a fastball over his head, failing to advance Fox to third. Fox later gets thrown out at the plate on a base hit to right. Torres gets out of the inning.
With this performance today, you figure Torres gets another start next Tuesday against the Oakland A's. We'll see then whether he's a legit candidate for the White Sox pitching staff in 2010.
From this afternoon's game, I draw two conclusions. 1) Alfonso Soriano is brutal this year. The Cubs should shut him down the rest of the season, and 2) a .500 team in the American League is better than a .500 team in the National League.
The Sox won the season series from the Cubs 4-2. Even though the Sox suck this year, I believe they are Chicago's best baseball team.
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