Eww, Andy, that was a GOOD game! Wasn’t it Andy? He pitched GOOD, threw the ball REAL hard. Actually Gavin’s fastball topped out at about 93, but I’m just thinking about what Floyd the Barber on the old Andy Griffith show might have said about the performance turned in by Gavin Floyd last night against the Twins.
I had my doubts as I headed to the Cell to watch the White Sox play the team from Minnesota. My boys were coming off a four game sweep at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays, in which the Sox scored only five runs in the four games, losing the last game 1-0 when Pablo Ozuna rapped into a 1-2-3 doubleplay with the bases loaded and one out to finish up the series, OUCH!
But last night was a different story, Floyd was masterful with his nasty curveball accompanying his pinpoint control of his heater. At first the White Sox didn’t push it, not trying to score on a ball hit to rookie centerfielder Carlos Gomez, his throw was off the mark, the runner would have scored, but the Sox were hesitant. Right after that play in the first inning, a Sox runner tried for 3rd, would’ve been out on a good throw, but the throw got away from the thirdbaseman. Instead of dusting himself off, glad he made third, the runner headed for home, a dead duck, for sure. He kicked the ball out of the catcher’s mitt and was safe at the plate. 2-0 Sox after one inning.
The Sox leftfielder dropped a ball in the 4th, the Twins scored an unearned run to cut it to 2-1, but the Palehose scored a run in the bottom of the frame to keep the game at a two run difference between the two teams. The Good Guys added four more tallies to make it 7-1.
Going into the top of the 8th somebody said, “I didn’t know he was throwing a no-hitter”. The words hit me like I’d had icewater thrown into my face. I looked out at the scoreboard like I’d never seen it before. The ZERO in the hits column for Minnestota looked to be a mirage. Why would someone say it outloud? It’s like saying, Macbeth or Lord Voldemort, only ten times worse! Fans around me began to call friends on their cell phones, talk about the gem, heck even my phone got a call telling me about the no-no. Would these people walk under ladders, carrying a black cat, while breaking mirrors?
Before the 9th inning I said, I’d bring in Brian Anderson for Nick Swisher in center. But people around me, the ones talking about the no-hitter, knowing nothing about superstition etiquette, said, don’t change a thing.
Floyd struckout the first batter looking in the 9th. Then it happened, a linedrive just out of the diving reach of Nick Swisher, for a two basehit by Joe Mauer. Would Brian Anderson have caught the baseball? I’m not sure, but he’d have had a better shot of preserving the no-hitter than Swisher. Oh well, it was a great game. 8 1/3 innings before the first hit, lotsa tension, lotsa excitement. Bobby Jenks came on to close it out.
Gavin Floyd (3-1) 8′ IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO, 2.50 ERA
