posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 11:19 PM by Jim

July 29: Twins 6, White Sox 5

Clayton Richard faced a make-or-break point in his 2008 season in the fifth inning.  It broke him.

Cruising through four innings, Richard hit a wall in the fifth, allowing five runs before getting pulled with two outs.  Unfortunately, the heartbreak happened long before Justin Morneau hit a three-run double to give the Twins the lead -- because that was the third time in the inning Richard was ahead with two strikes that inning and failed to get the job done.

And the first two times, he faced far worse hitters.  He threw three straight out of the zone against Brendan Harris after Brian Anderson couldn't hang on to Mike Redmond's flare to put two on with nobody out, and then did the same thing to Denard Span in between a Carlos Gomez RBI single.

When Morneau crushed the 2-2 fastball, Richard had reaped what he had sown.  And maybe Jermaine Dye blew that play by getting turned around, but 1) that ball was smoked, and 2) a shorter outfielder may not have had a chance.

The bullpen ultimately did a good job, but Joe Mauer's RBI single provided a key insurance run.  Nick Swisher hit a broken-bat blast off Joe Nathan in the ninth, but it ultimately didn't matter with the two-run lead.

It's only a hard loss because the Sox had built a quick 4-0 lead off Glen Perkins.  They manufactured a run in the first when Orlando Cabrera singled, got to second on a balk, to third on Anderson's fly ball, and home on Carlos Quentin's chopper for a 1-0 lead.

They added two in the second on Josh Fields' two-run double down the left-field line, and Anderson homered in the fifth to give Richard his biggest cushion.  It was Anderson's first homer in a park not named U.S. Cellular or Safeco Field.

But Anderson then couldn't hang on after diving for Redmond's duck-snort in the fifth, then overthrew the cutoff man after Gomez's single, allowing Gomez to get an extra base.  His inning summed up the Sox's night pretty nicely.

Record: 59-46 | Box score | Play-by-play

Comments

# re: July 29: Twins 6, White Sox 5

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 3:21 AM by Joist
That's "sown", not "sewn".

Also, thank you (in your soxmachine post) for talking me off the ledge. This team is so frustrating when they lose, so I just have to be reminded that it's no different from any other.

# re: July 29: Twins 6, White Sox 5

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 3:28 AM by Jim Margalus
Indeed it is. Typing without thinking, was I.

# re: July 29: Twins 6, White Sox 5

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 11:47 AM by striker
Swisher should have bunted Cabrera over in the 7th. No more small ball I guess. Ozzie was hoping for a homer.

The ironic thing is that is exactly what the Twins did in the bottom of the inning after Gomez reached. And he ended up scoring the winning run.

Learn from your enemies Ozzie. If your team can't hit then manufacture runs.

It sickens me that the Twins basically have Maurer, Morneau and Nathan as big name players but are still a better team than us.

# re: July 29: Twins 6, White Sox 5

Thursday, July 31, 2008 12:02 AM by soxexile
This game says it all for me. I hate losing to anyone, but you've got to respect the Twins for consistently playing smart baseball, and rarely making the small errors that add up. It leaves me wondering why KW finds it so difficult to acquire high OPS guys, and why our players can't execute, when it's the Twinkies can do both so consistently.