2007 State of the Sox

July 14: Orioles 7, White Sox 6 (10 innings)

Bobby Jenks entered with a two-run lead, saw the Orioles whittle it down to one run.  That lead evaporated when Jenks, pitching with a runner on third and a 1-2 count, threw his 50th or so pitch in the dirt that inning.  

It just happened to be the one A.J. Pierzynski couldn’t block.  It rolled to the backstop, the run came home, and the Sox had blown yet another lead.

Charlie Haeger would end up taking the loss in the 10th, a fitting start to his 2007 season with the White Sox.  He had gotten a grounder right to a drawn-in Tadahito Iguchi with one out, but with two outs, Nick Markakis found a hole through the left side and the game was over.

Of course, they weren’t the only two to struggle.  Ozzie Guillen used every reliever but Dewon Day, and every inning from the sixth on was a gigantic fight.  

Nick Masset was on his way to pitching an uneventful inning when Alex Cintron booted a playable grounder to his left.  Ryan Bukvich threw one pitch – and it hit Kevin Millar in the shoulder to load the bases.  Matt Thornton walked two in his inning of work.

Only Boone Logan, who struck out Aubrey Huff with the bases loaded in the seventh, could say he actually did his job.  And thus was my first in-person look at what a disaster this White Sox bullpen is.

Javier Vazquez, coming off two complete games, couldn’t make it out of the sixth.  With one out, he gave up a solo homer to Millar, and then Jay Payton followed up a couple batters later.

It was somewhat vintage Vazquez – if you call April through July of 2006 “vintage.”  Up until that point, he had cruised.  He ran into some early trouble, giving up an RBI double to Markakis in the first, but he settled down shortly thereafter.

The Sox offense gave him some support early on, sending eight batters to the plate against a wild Daniel Cabrera and scoring three runs.  Paul Konerko doubled in a run, Jermaine Dye added an RBI single and Rob Mackowiak drew a bases-loaded walk.  Josh Fields ended the threat with a 6-4-3 double play.

Single runs in the second and third stretched the lead to 5-1, though it could’ve been bigger.  Juan Uribe couldn’t cash in a runner on third with one out in the third.

However, when it looked like Sox hitters called it a night, they added an insurance run in the eighth.  Jerry Owens reached on what was scored an error, but looked like a favorable wrong call instead, as it appeared Millar had beat Owens to the base after a throw pulled him off.  He stole second off Chad Bradford and scored on Cintron’s RBI single.

Record: 40-49 | Box score | Play-by-play