2008 State of the Sox

June 19: White Sox 13, Pirates 8

Last year, I was lucky enough to attend the game in Yankee Stadium where the Sox scored eight runs in the top of the second, only to watch New York tie it in the bottom of the frame.

It's far more enjoyable to watch it happen the other way around.

Gavin Floyd appeared to have this game lost when he gave up half a dozen runs to Pittsburgh after starting the game with a 1-2-3 inning.  All six runs were unearned because Pablo Ozuna threw high and wide on an attempted force at second, which would've been the third out and kept the game scoreless but instead pulled Alexei Ramirez.

Still, Floyd was off his game.  He walked the leadoff man that inning and the next, couldn't locate his slider, and grooved a fastball to Nate McLouth that cleared the bases.  Freddy Sanchez crushed another piped fastball, and the Pirates had a quick 6-0 lead, all scored with two outs as five consecutive batters reached base.

Somehow, the Sox struck back by using the opposite field.  Jim Thome led off with a double that short-hopped the left-field wall, and Jermaine Dye doubled him home to the right-center gap.  Nick Swisher flipped one off the bat inside the left-field line, and Alexei Ramirez somehow found the hole in the left side to make it 6-2.

Brian Anderson finally made the first out of the inning, but it was a productive one -- a deep fly ball that allowed Swisher to tag up.  Ozuna partially redeemed himself with a single again through the hole on the left side, and Orlando Cabrera tied it with one swing, drilling a first-pitch fastball into the left field stands.

Dye gave the Sox their first lead with a solo homer in the third, but he wasn't done.  With a 9-7 lead and the bases loaded after a single and two walks, Dye hit a grand slam, his 14th of the season and second non-solo shot to turn a ballgame into a laugher.

Floyd managed to last 5 2/3 innings, and though he spoiled a lead by giving up an RBI single to Sanchez in the fourth inning, he left with a 9-7 lead.  Matt Thornton struck out the only batter he faced -- McLouth -- on three pitches.

Octavio Dotel struck out the side, and Scott Linebrink pitched a scoreless frame as well.  Adam Russell gave up his first major league run.

Record: 41-31 | Box score | Play-by-play