2007 State of the Sox

September 7: White Sox 11, Twins 10 (13 innings)

It's fitting that an unlikely event capped off a chain of improbable occurrences -- starting with the fact that the Twins scored six runs in the top of the ninth, and the White Sox scored six in the bottom of the ninth.

A.J. Pierzynski looked awful in his previous two at-bats leading up to his game-winning hit.  In the ninth inning, he struck out against Joe Nathan because he swung at two 58-60 footers.  In the 11th, he grounded out weakly to second.

But in the 13th, after swinging at another ankle-high sinker, Pierzynski found a pitch that stayed up enough and drilled it through the left side, past a diving Jason Bartlett, to drive in the winning run and cap off a six-run comeback.  Heath Phillips, after taking the loss in his first major-league appearance a couple days ago, managed to take home his first win to even his record.

Of course, Pierzynski's single may have merely been a 6-3 groundout had Joe West given Bartlett the neighborhood play on an apparent fielder's choice the play before.  Scott Podsednik chopped a grounder to second, and Nick Punto looked at first before throwing to second.  Bartlett came off the bag to avoid a sliding Jim Thome, and West didn't give him the force at second.

Thome played a big part in the Sox's comeback, blasting a three-run homer over the center field fence to cut the game to 10-9, following a two-run double by Josh Fields.  Paul Konerko walked, and a pinch-running Scott Podsednik stole second before coming home on Darin Erstad's game-tying double.

The Sox needed six runs to tie because of another bullpen meltdown triggered by an awful throw by Alex Cintron.  Two singles put runners on first and third with one out when Torii Hunter hit a chopper to third.  It may have been hit too slowly for the Sox to get two, but they didn't even get one because Cintron pretty much spiked the throw.

Boone Logan replaced Mike MacDougal, and the wheels came off.  After a pair of RBI singles by Justin Morneau and Mike Cuddyer, he gave up a three-run homer to .141-hitting Rondell White.  Fortunately, Lance Broadway stopped the bleeding in his big-league debut, retiring the only two batters he faced.

But that's not even where the weirdness starts.  It actually can be traced back to the seventh, when Alex Cintron tied the game with a pinch-hit home run.  After zero homers through August, he's hit two in September.

Javier Vazquez was nearly nibbled to death by the piranhas, but rebounded to pitch 6 1/3 solid innings, striking out eight.  Juan Uribe hit a two-run homer off personal whipping boy Carlos Silva.  With two hits in three at-bats, he's now 19-for-37 lifetime off the Minnesota righty.

Record: 60-81 | Box score | Play-by-play