2008 State of the Sox

August 22: Rays 9, White Sox 4

Pick a reliever, and he probably sucked tonight.  Well, except for Matt Thornton.

Thornton picked up John Danks after he gave up the lead in the seventh, striking out the two batters he didn't intentinoally walk.  But Octavio Dotel put it out of reach with awful relief work, and after Alexei Ramirez's two-run shot put the Sox within striking distance at 6-4, Horacio Ramirez and Adam Russell re-nailed the coffin shut.

Up until that point, the White Sox and Rays were competing to see who could strand runs more creatively.  The Sox left them loaded in the first and stranded two in the second, but not because of anything more unusual than not getting runners over.

The Rays, however, had runners on second and third with nobody out with nobody out in the second, but Ben Zobrist hit a chopper right in front of the plate.  Danks sprinted home, grabbed it with his bare hand, dove and tagged out Rocco Baldelli before he could get his hand on the plate for one out.

If that wasn't odd enough, Dioner Navarro hit a fly to left, which Carlos Quentin caught and afterward made a perfect throw home to get Willy Aybar for the inning-ending double play.

Nick Swisher homered for the fourth straight game and gave the Sox a 2-0 lead, but a two-out triple by Akinori Iwamura -- a Quentin gift, since he fell down on the warning track trying ot pick it up -- and a solo homer by Carlos Pena tied it up after six.

Record: 73-54 | Box score | Play-by-play