2008 State of the Sox

April 5: White Sox 5, Tigers 3

The great thing about today's game is that it makes it harder and harder to find room for Jerry Owens.  If Nick Swisher can routinely play center nearly as well as he did today and Carlos Quentin keeps hitting -- and throwing -- Ozzie Guillen will have his easiest job setting the outfield since Scott Podsednik hurt himself in August 2005.

Not only did Swisher set the tone at the top of the lineup, drawing three walks on 20 pitches off a wild Dontrelle Willis, but he made two of a bevy of great plays by Sox outfielders.

Swisher made a beautiful running catch on a ball hit directly over his head by Carlos Guillen in the fifth, then kept Ivan Rodriguez from collecting his 2,500th hit with a two-handed sliding grab in the ninth.  To Swisher's left, Jermaine Dye kept Edgar Renteria at first by reading a carom off the sidewall correctly, which set up the play of the day:  Carlos Quentin's throw.

With no outs, Rodriguez followed Renteria by hitting a solid liner to left, but one hit directly at Quentin.  The catch was routine, but the same can't be said about the throw.  With Renteria holding up near the second base bag before retreating, Quentin launched a rocket from left field that may have surprised not just Renteria, but his teammates.  It flew about 250 feet, right into Paul Konerko's mitt a split second before Renteria arrived for a 7-3 double play.

That play turned out to be huge, because Floyd walked Jacque Jones (after getting ahead 0-2) and Brandon Inge homered to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.  Had Quentin merely flipped it back to the infield, the Tigers could've built an even bigger lead.

The Tigers needed that run, because Willis couldn't find the plate.  He didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning, but it was only a matter of time until the Sox figured him out.  Quentin nearly missed a three-run homer off Willis in the top of the fourth before grounding into a double play, the second time he's seen the same series of events happen to him.

In the sixth, the Sox offense finally clicked.  Swisher drew a seven-pitch walk, Orlando Cabrera walked on four pitches and Jim Thome doubled to left to score Swisher.  Jim Leyland had seen enough of Willis, who walked seven on the day.

Zach Miner couldn't strand the runners.  He got Konerko to chop out, driving in one run, but after a walk to Dye, Quentin delivered with a single back through the box to tie the game.

Another small play by Dye that led to big results -- on Quentin's single, he ran hard into second, which allowed him to get to third when Clete Thomas couldn't field the ball cleanly.  He scored the Sox's go-ahead run on Joe Crede's sacrifice fly.

Then he dropped the small stuff and gave the Sox a 5-3 lead with his second homer of the year off Francis Beltran.

Gavin Floyd continued his string of success against Detroit with six strong innings, with really only Jones and Inge hurting him.  Along with the homer, Inge had an RBI double to drive in Jones.

Jones and Inge made a ballgame of it in the ninth inning with two outs.  Jones singled and Inge walked to put the tying runs on the bases, but Joe Crede flopped on Thomas' hard grounder to the left side and forced Inge at second for Bobby Jenks' third save in as many days.

Record: 3-2 | Box score | Play-by-play