2008 State of the Sox

May 5: Blue Jays 1, White Sox 0

Javier Vazquez allowed a solo homer to Matt Stairs leading off the seventh.  It wasn't even a bad pitch -- a curveball on the outer half of the plate that Stairs managed to golf just over the right-field wall.

That was all the Blue Jays needed to hand the White Sox their sixth straight loss.

Of course, the Sox did have a few quality opportunities.  They  had runners on second and third with nobody out in the third after an infield single by Juan Uribe and Toby Hall's double down the third-base line, which was his first extra-base hit of the year.

Orlando Cabrera chopped out weakly to short on the first pitch, and with David Eckstein playing deep, Uribe should have run.  He didn't.  Carlos Quentin came to the plate and worked a 2-0 count, then 3-1.  He failed, too, flying out to short right field, where Alexis Rios possesses an excellent arm.  That left Jim Thome to try to come up with a two-out hit.  He struck out on a slider in the dirt.  Inning over.

That paled in comparison to the ninth, when B.J. Ryan walked three batters to bring up Pablo Ozuna with the bases loaded and one out.  Ozuna grounded into a 1-2-3 double play to end the game.

The Sox even played quality defense for Vazquez this time, which Mark Buehrle and John Danks didn't receive in their starts.  Paul Konerko snagged a grounded near the bag and made a good throw to second where Cabrera applied a tag for a 3-6 double play.  Cabrera made a heads-up play, cutting off a throw destined to third on a Scott Rolen single and catching Rolen between first and second.  Konerko froze the runner at third, Shannon Stewart, and Vazquez tagged Rolen after a brief rundown.

Vazquez stranded Stewart at third, one of three times he stranded a runner there over the course of the evening.  He nearly became the third Sox pitcher to throw a complete-game loss, but Ozuna couldn't get the ball out of his mitt in time to get Stewart out on an infield single.  He night ended after walking Rolen with two outs in the eighth with his 121st pitch.  Matt Thornton struck out Stairs with a high slider.

Ozzie Guillen tried to shake things up by slotting Orlando Cabrera in the leadoff spot for the first time all year.  He grounded out to short on the first pitch, and that set the tone for the White Sox offense for the rest of the evening.

Record: 14-16 | Box score | Play-by-play