2008 State of the Sox

April 30: Twins 4, White Sox 3

Truth be told, when a bullpen allows one run over five innings, it's a good day's work.  Still, if Boone Logan were just a little more careful to Justin Morneau...

Booner came in with the unenviable task of facing Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau with Carlos Gomez on second, after Gomez reached on a bunt single off Ehren Wassermann and advanced on a sacrifice bunt.  Why Gomez didn't try a straight steal on a guy with a bad pickoff move (Wassermann) and a catcher with a troubled arm (Toby Hall) is beyond me, but I don't think the Sox minded the free out from Gardenhire.

Anyway, Logan managed to retire Mauer on a weak grounder.  He went down 3-0, but he still didn't give Mauer anything to hit.  He ended up way out in front of a slider, and dribbled it weakly to Juan Uribe for the second out.

Up came Morneau, who was out in front of the first three Logan breaking balls.  Logan kept him honest with a beautiful inside fastball that jammed Morneau silly to push the count to 3-2.  Steve Stone suggested a breaking ball, since Morneau punishes fastballs.  Logan tried the high heat instead, and Morneau caught up to it for an opposite-field ground rule double to give the Twins a 4-3 lead.

It wasn't a bad pitch, but it played more to Morneau's strengths than an out-of-the-strike-zone slider would have.  Oh well.

Still, it'd help if the offense could score more than three runs.   They had their chances, and when the bottom three of Brian Anderson, Juan Uribe and Hall each have hits -- in Anderson's case, three of them -- the offense should manage more.  It's sort of like if the Bears ever got 135 rushing yards out of Cedric Benson and still lost -- it's that same level of inexcusable when the pitching holds up.

Hall actually played a pretty good game himself, too.  He had a single and nearly had a second one fall in.  He also should have been credited with throwing out Gomez at third, but when the ball got away from Joe Crede, he blocked the plate to prevent the run.

Anderson's third single against Joe Nathan put the tying run on base with one out, and pinch-hitting A.J. Pierzynski drew a tough walk, but a pinch-hitting (?) Pablo Ozuna flew out to center on the first pitch.  That itself was a curious decision, but I suppose Ozuna's career 0-for-3 performance against Nathan was better than Uribe's 0-for-9.

Also, Ozuna's at-bat was better than Nick Swisher's, who struck out on three pitches, looking at the last one clip the outside corner for the final out.

Swisher did contribute to the offense's cause with an RBI single that tied the game in the sixth, the kind of two-out hit with runners in scoring position the Sox have lacked lately.  They entered the game with five hits in their last 50 at-bats in such situations.

But the offense came in drips once again.  Swisher led off with a four-pitch walk, then scored on Jim Thome's double.  Thome tried to stretch it to three bags and was thrown out easily.  Carlos Quentin's solo homer provided the other run, and the Sox rarely threatened otherwise.

Nick Magic was erratic in his first start since the famed five innings against the Cubs last May.  It could've been worse, but it would've been hard for him to say the same about his control.  He nearly took the heads off a few Twins, walked Nick Punto on four pitches and also issued a free pass to the hard-to-walk Delmon Young.  On the other hand, he pitched around a first-inning triple by Joe Mauer and struck out Jason Kubel with two on and two outs in the third, so he managed to man up a couple times.

Matt Thornton and Octavio Dotel looked downright unhittable.

Record: 14-12 | Box score | Play-by-play