posted on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 11:59 PM by Jim

June 4: White Sox 6, Royals 4 (15 innings)

Paul Konerko needed it.  The bullpen needed it.  Everybody needed it.

And for once, Konerko delivered.

Paulie swung at the first pitch he saw -- a rarity -- and hooked it inside the left-field foul pole for a walk-off homer off Jimmy Gobble.  He was 0-for-4 with two walks before that, and saw his average drop below the Mendoza Line.  But off Gobble, he was 4-for-5 with three homers, so if he was going to get a big hit off anybody, that was the guy.

He didn't just pick himself up.  He picked up Bobby Jenks, who blew his third save after two singles, a two-strike bunt, and another single that erased a two-run lead in the bottom of the ninth.  He also picked up Alexei Ramirez, who maybe picked him up with an assortment of barehanded plays, but missed home plate on an error that was kicked into center field and cost the Sox a key run.

Fortunately, the rest of the White Sox bullpen was up to the task. 

Nick Masset came in with the bases loaded and struck out the only batter he faced to end the sixth.  Scott Linebrink worked out of a little jam for a scoreless inning.  Boone Logan was brilliant for 2 1/3 perfect innings.

Octavio Dotel wasn't perfect.  He hit two guys and walked a leadoff batter on four pitches.  Yet he stranded a runner on second to end the 15th and picked up his third win of the season.  Hopefully he won't pitch again anytime soon.

Danks was the hard-luck loser, although he could've helped himself a little bit more by going more than 5 2/3 innings.   He wasn't particularly sharp, as he gave up a couple of solo homers and threw a lot of pitches, but he was in line for the win until Jenks blew it.

Jim Thome tied it up on one swing in the fourth, as the Gentleman Masher hit it to the party deck in center.  The tape measure only called it 464 feet, but that seemed to underestimate it by quite a bit.  Joe Crede followed up the next inning with a much less impressive solo shot, which landed in the Sox bullpen.

Crede also scored Nick Swisher from first with a double in the sixth, as it rattled around the left-field corner and past Jose Guillen.  Guillen has a cannon for an arm, but his misplay allowed Swisher to score easily.

Record: 32-26 | Box score | Play-by-play

Comments

# re: June 4: White Sox 6, Royals 4 (15 innings)

Thursday, June 05, 2008 9:33 AM by Florida Jim
I believe all of us are happy for Konerko but that game was brutal! AJ grounding 5 times to second base, that is hard to do! Alexi made some lovely barehanded pickups the last of which may have saved the game. Baserunning still plaques us-Alexi not stepping on home plate, Anderson trying to stretch a nice double, with the game for the taking, into a triple and he was out by a mile , Quentin getting picked off, again. We could be leading the league by several games if we stopped doing the silly mistakes which we seem unable to improve upon. I know all our coaches "are working hard" but that is not the same as getting results, is it?