Home Run Derby

Well, if we always post 3 Home Run Nights for players, we definitely should recognize a more rare achievement, 4 consecutive Home Runs by the White Sox (Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, Alexei Ramirez, Juan Uribe).  To give you a bit of scale, a single player has hit 3 Home Runs in a game 480 times.  However, a team has hit 4 consecutive Home Runs in a game only 6 times.

Funny thing is, it happened once the past three seasons (Dodgers in ‘06, Red Sox in ‘07, White Sox in ‘08), but apparently these things come in threes, because the first three occurences took place in a four year span (Braves in ‘61, Indians in ‘63, Twins in ‘64).  Again for scale, 3 Home Run Games occurred 19 times the past three years.

Jim Thome

It was still a tight game at 3-2 when the lumberjack Jim Thome came to plate.  Joel Peralta was already having control problems, walking Griffey and Quentin, before falling behind Thome 3-1.  Next pitch was gone and the Sox lead 6-2.  

And in case you were wondering, Jim Thome….he is strong, and he hits a lot of Home Runs. Long Home Runs.  532 of them in career to be exact.

Paul Konerko

If there is a player that can use a pick-me-up, it’s Paul Konerko.  I don’t think most people even realize that Paulie played in 8 of the 10 games in this homestand, hit .384 with 2 HR, 5 RBI and 7 walks (a .515 OBP).  Hopefully, he can keep it up (he saw his BA rise 13 points from .213 to .226 during the homestand.  Paulie didn’t even wait to see a couple of pitches as he knocked Peralta’s first pitch to him out of the Park.

Alexei Ramirez

The Cuban Missle launched another missle out of the park.  I don’t get how a guy that skinny gets so much bat speed.  If he ever got some height on the ball, he would get some serious distance.  Peralta was close to getting him out as he fouled of a couple 1-2 pitches before launching Home Run #3 of 4.

My only complaint about Alexei is that he doesn’t have real good pitch discipline and swings at just about everything, but I will take it.

Juan Uribe

Well what can I say about Juan.  He hasn’t been my favorite player.  I scratched my head when the Sox released Pablo Ozuna insted of Uribe.

Well Juan, you get a nice little victory lap because you had the pressure of hitting #4 and you did it off a different pitcher than the other three (Robinson Tejada).  Tejada got him in a 1-2 count and made a mistake and history is tied.  Poor Toby Hall,  he had a chance for setting the new record, but at least he went down swinging.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am and is filed under 2008 MLB, Milestone Home Runs, White Sox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.