2008 State of the Sox

ALDS Game 4: Rays 6, White Sox 2

B.J. Upton had Gavin Floyd's number, the Rays' speed had the Sox defense's number, the wind had A.J. Pierzynski's number, and Andy Sonnanstine and Jeff Kellogg had the Sox lineup's number.

As far as season-ending losses go, this one was pretty painless.

Rays win 3-1 | Box score | Play-by-play

ALDS Game 3: White Sox 5, Rays 3

Stolen bases.  Hits with runners in scoring position.  Runs in the second half of the game.

The White Sox can rack up these things when they're in the out of doors.

It also helped to have Dewayne Wise back.  Wise, who was benched in Game 2 because of a lefty on the mound, made an immediate impact in this one.  He scored the Sox's first run by singling, stealing second and scoring on A.J. Pierzynski's single to tie the game at 1 in the third.

Two innings later, he came up with the afternoon's biggest hit.

The Sox had just taken the lead on Alexei Ramirez's sacrifice fly.  But not only did it get a run home -- his deep fly to center also allowed Paul Konerko to get to third, and Ken Griffey Jr. to move to second.  Wise knocked them both by redirecting a first-pitch fastball on the outside corner down the left-field line to give the Sox a 4-1 lead.

John Danks and Co. would make it stand.  Danks pitched superbly, allowing a run on an infield single for the first six innings.  He began to tire in the seventh, missing his spots badly.  That led to walking Rocco Baldelli and grooving a cutter to B.J. Upton, who cut a 5-1 lead to 5-3.

After Danks gave up a single to Carlos Pena, Ozzie Guillen had to pull him.  In came Octavio Dotel, who struck out Evan Longoria with a fastball to end the seventh.  Matt Thornton and Bobby Jenks would both allow the tying run to come to the plate, but their baserunners did not advance past first.

Rays lead 2-1 | Box score | Play-by-play

ALDS Game 2: Rays 6, White Sox 2

Pin this one on the offense.

Sox hitters had an excellent chance to jump on Scott Kazmir, and they did well enough to get two first-inning runs.  But after Juan Uribe struck out with the bases loaded to end the first, it marked the start of the return to dysfunction.

While they racked up Kazmir's pitch count, they only did so after two outs.  Until Uribe led off the sixth with a single, Kazmir had retired the first two hitters in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings.  That forced the Sox to put together three straight hits, something they're not apt to do.

Of course, flipping the order didn't help, either.  When Uribe reached in the sixth, Brian Anderson bunted him over.  He stayed there when Grant Balfour got Orlando Cabrera to ground out, and Nick Swisher to fly out.

Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko started the seventh with a pair of singles.  They'd stay put, with J.P. Howell getting Jim Thome, Alexei Ramirez and A.J. Pierzynski to make soft outs.

Mark Buehrle pitched well enough to win.  Ramirez helped the first run cross the plate when he had a chance for a lineout double play, but threw the ball away.  A runner who should've been on first ended up on third, and he'd score on a single to cut the lead to 2-1.

Akinori's fifth-inning, two-run homer gave Tampa Bay a lead it wouldn't relinquish.  Buehrle's exit was sealed the eighth after B.J. Upton tripled, and Carl Crawford drove him in with a single.  The game got away from Octavio Dotel and Matt Thornton after that, but it wouldn't have mattered.

Why?  Because the Sox had no clue against J.P. Howell.  In arguably its most embarrassing moment of the season, Howell struck out the side looking in the eighth.  Swisher did so after being ahead in the count 3-0.  He never took the bat off his shoulder.

Rays lead 2-0 | Box score | Play-by-play

ALDS Game 1: Rays 6, White Sox 4

The Sox entered this game with a noticeably unfavorable pitching matchup, so when Dewayne Wise picked up Orlando Cabrera with a two-out homer that gave the Sox a 3-1 lead, Javier Vazquez needed to hold it.

He surrendered it immediately.  It started with a slap hit by Jason Bartlett, followed up with a triple  over the head of Ken Griffey (although Brian Anderson likely wouldn't have caught it).  A Willy Aybar sac fly tied it, and then Evan Longoria blasted a 64-m.p.h. lollipop curve out to left field to retake the lead, which he had given the Rays in the second inning by taking a first-pitch fastball over the left-field wall.

Longoria sealed Vazquez's exit two innings later with an RBI single, the third hit of the inning.  Javy once again left the game after only 4 1/3 innings, and despite some fine relief work from Clayton Richard, who settled down after allowing an RBI single to Carl Crawford, the Sox were basically out of it.

The Sox were outhit 11-7, and were retired 1-2-3 in five of the nine innings.  In six innings, only three batters came to the plate.  A.J. Pierzynski singled to lead off the fourth, but was hung out to dry when Cabrera missed on a hit-and-run with a 0-1 count. 

Cabrera really had a lousy game.  He went 0-for-4 and stranded five runners.  He left two on in the third inning by popping up the second bad pitch he swung at with two on, but Wise picked him up with the homer.

He had no such cushion when Grant Balfour struck him out to end the seventh with the bases loaded.  He had a chance to pick up a teammate himself as Balfour struck out Juan Uribe before him.  Cabrera picked him up emotionally, maybe.  After ball one, he kicked a cloud of dusty toward Balfour and said "fork you," and Balfour fired back.  Joe West had to keep them separated.

It could've been one of the coolest moments ever, especially when Cabrera got ahead 2-1.  But West said Cabrera swung on a close check-swing, and Balfour blew him away with a fastball to end the inning.  Balfour had more words for Cabrera after that; Cabrera had nothing.

The Rays left an opportunity on the table as well when Octavio Dotel struck out B.J. Upton with the bases loaded in the eighth, and Paul Konerko led off the top of the ninth with a solo shot off Dan Wheeler.  It was a nice at-bat for Konerko in one way, considering he fell behind 0-2 and extended the at-bat to 11 pitches.  On the other hand, he thought he walked on 2-2.  Either way, he closed it to a two-run game.

Unfortunately, the Sox couldn't bring the tying run to the plate.  Griffey flew out (0-for-4, two strikeouts), Alexei Ramirez struck out and A.J. Pierzynski, who had a nice day with two hits and a HBP, flew out harmlessly to center to end the game.

Rays lead 1-0 | Box score | Play-by-play