2008 State of the Sox

Sept. 19: White Sox 9, Royals 4

When Alexei Ramirez strolled to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning, I had begun to have a flashback to Wednesday's Yankees game.  Except the pitcher wasn't Phil Hughes -- it was Brian Bannister.

Bannister had thrown 24 pitches in the inning prior to Ramirez's at-bat.  Ramirez worked it up to 32 with four foul balls after a 2-2 count, none of them hit particularly hard.  It seemed that, just like in Wednesday's game, the Sox were determined to rack up the opponent's pitch count without, you know, actually scoring a run.

Ramirez himself had prevented the Sox from scoring a run earlier in the game.  In the second, Cabrera shot one to the gap with Ramirez in motion from first.  Jeff Cox made a wise choice waving him home even though Jose Guillen had cut it off, but it appeared Ramirez missed the plate on his slide to keep the game scoreless.

But Ramirez atoned, turning on one and crushing it 342 feet, just inside the left-field foul pole, for a grand slam.  In one moment, the Sox went from struggling for one run to pouring it on.

Credit A.J. Pierzynski with a quality at-bat in front of Ramirez.  Like Alexei, A.J. had to battle from a 2-2 count, fouling off three pitches with a full count for a nine-pitch walk.  Between the two of them, they made Bannister throw 18 pitches, and it amounted to four runs.

Funnier yet, the Sox kept scoring with two outs.  Nick Swisher fell behind 1-2, took a pitch, fouled another off, then stroked a solid single up the middle.  Juan Uribe fell behind 0-2, fouled one off, then dumped a blooper just inside the right field line.  Swisher scored on a wild pitch, and Orlando Cabrera scored Uribe with a single for a 6-0 lead.

Mark Buehrle, starting on short rest, might've been a bit rusty from the long inning.  He needed a pickoff for the first out after a Mike Aviles singled, which became even bigger when Buehrle gave up a rocket single to Guillen, hit Ryan Shealy and allowed a three-run Mark Teahan homer to cut the game in half.

Jim Thome, however, hit his 33rd homer over the wall in right-center the following half-inning, and the Royal threat was vanquished.  Dewayne Wise added two solo homers for good luck.

Record: 85-68 | Box score | Play-by-play