I only watched bits and pieces of this game, but here are the key nuggets:
The Sox botched a rundown for the second straight game -- after Mark Buehrle picked off Jonny Gomes, his second of the game -- except this time, they made an even bigger mistake by running Gomes back to the base ahead. A Buehrle meltdown ensued, and four straight singles later, the Rays had a 3-0 lead. And yes, this all occurred with two outs.
The rundown was awkward on a number of levels. Konerko seemed to do the right thing by running Gomes three-quarters of the way there before flipping to Orlando Cabrera. Cabrera got rid of the ball a little too quickly, and Juan Uribe then held onto the ball too long, and once he realized he couldn't outrun Gomes, he flipped it to Cabrera, who was standing five feet in front of Joe Crede, who was covering second and ready to catch the ball. Cabrera missed the tag.
Buehrle allowed 12 hits, two walks and a hit batter over seven innings, but was bailed out by three double plays.
The problem was that his counterpart, Tampa Bay starter Andy Sonnastine, induced two himself. He probably could've gotten more, if only the Sox had more men reach base. Instead, Sonnastine held the Sox to three hits and a walk, and only faced two over the minimum.
The Sox only had one runner reach scoring position, when Orlando Cabrera reached on a bunt and moved to second on Jim Thome's groundout to second. He was stranded there when Konerko grounded out to Evan Longoria.
Toby Hall started for the Sox and singled to center before being erased on the double play. With Hall catching in place of A.J. Pierzynski and Alexei Ramirez giving Jermaine Dye a night off, the Sox had five guys with batting averages under the Mendoza Line.
Record: 10-7 |
Box score |
Play-by-play