posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 9:53 PM
by
Jim
April 7: White Sox 7, Twins 4
JOOOOOOOOOOE! CREDE!
We know the drill by now. Two outs, tie game, one of baseball's toughest righties on the mound in the seventh inning, and Joe Crede takes him deep. Making matters more exciting, the bases happened to be loaded, so Crede happened to pick a great time for the first grand slam of the year.
Jim Thome started the seventh by drawing a walk from Matt Guerrier. Paul Konerko shot a single to right-center to get Thome to third, and in came the tough Pat Neshek.
Jermaine Dye then followed up with a terrific at-bat off Neshek -- he fell behind 0-2, then fouled a couple pitches off before throwing his bat at a low, outside slider and shooting it back through the box to tie the game at 3.
After an A.J. Pierzynski strikeout, Carlos Quentin lined a single to Delmon Young. Jeff Cox held Konerko at third, as he would've been a dead duck at home. You can call it either station-to-station baseball or building the drama, because Crede ripped an inside fastball just inside the left field foul pole for his fifth career slam.
Scott Linebrink was touched up for his first run thanks to an unwise walk of leadoff man Denard Span in the eighth inning, but Bobby Jenks worked his calmest ninth in quite some time. He allowed a one-out single to Matt Tolbert, but erased him with a double play from Carlos Gomez.
The bullpen work preserved a win for Javier Vazquez, who worked a little too hard at the beginning of a game before picking it up later this time around. His struggles were due to his inability to retire the leadoff man, as the Twins' first batter reach in each of the first three innings. Vazquez kept the ball in the yard, but he was dinged up by singles and doubles, including Mike Lamb's one-out two-bagger that stretched Minnesota's lead to 3-1.
Once he hit the fifth, Javy put it into cruise control. He retired the last 11 batters he faced and struck out eight on the day.
Up to hte seventh, the question was whether he'd receive enough run support to get the win. Nick Blackburn spoiled a good scoring opportunity for the Sox early. The Sox started with three straight hits off Blackburn, but with runners on first and second and no outs after a Thome RBI single, Blackburn struck out Konerko and Dye before getting Pierzynski grounded to short.
Record: 5-2 |
Box score |
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