2008 State of the Sox

August 31: White Sox 4, Red Sox 2

Bobby Jenks had the luxury of a three-run lead in Fenway Park, which he managed to whittle down to two when Dustin Pedroia came to the plate.  Pedroia had managed to reach in 11 consecutive plate appearance, prompting Ozzie Guillen to both rant and rave about the Red Sox "jockey."  So, of course, he came to the plate representing the go-ahead run.

He tried to give the Red Sox a win with one swing, but it resulted in a harmless fly to shallow left that landed in Carlos Quentin's glove, and the White Sox avoided a sweep that looked inevitable after drubbings in the first two games.

Gavin Floyd played the role of stopper, allowing one run over 6 2/3 innings.  He worked out of trouble early on, leaving them loaded after a Jason Bay lineout in the first and stranding two runners in scoring position the following inning.  He eventually found his footing, while the Sox offense scraped together twice as many runs as they scored the first two games of the series combined.

Jim Thome tied Mickey Mantle with his 536th homer in the first, and came around to score on Paul Konerko's two-out double down the left-field line in the sixth.

Alexei Ramirez added another insurance run with an interesting slide in the ninth.  With the Missile on first, Joe Crede looped a double in the same place Konerko's went three innings prior.  Ramirez was running all the way, and managed to score ahead of a quality relay by sliding on his seat with his wrong foot forward.  He may have felt an extra stride would've cost him, and watching the replays, he probably was right about that.

Record: 77-59 | Box score | Play-by-play