2008 State of the Sox

April 5: White Sox 5, Tigers 3

The great thing about today's game is that it makes it harder and harder to find room for Jerry Owens.  If Nick Swisher can routinely play center nearly as well as he did today and Carlos Quentin keeps hitting -- and throwing -- Ozzie Guillen will have his easiest job setting the outfield since Scott Podsednik hurt himself in August 2005.

Not only did Swisher set the tone at the top of the lineup, drawing three walks on 20 pitches off a wild Dontrelle Willis, but he made two of a bevy of great plays by Sox outfielders.

Swisher made a beautiful running catch on a ball hit directly over his head by Carlos Guillen in the fifth, then kept Ivan Rodriguez from collecting his 2,500th hit with a two-handed sliding grab in the ninth.  To Swisher's left, Jermaine Dye kept Edgar Renteria at first by reading a carom off the sidewall correctly, which set up the play of the day:  Carlos Quentin's throw.

With no outs, Rodriguez followed Renteria by hitting a solid liner to left, but one hit directly at Quentin.  The catch was routine, but the same can't be said about the throw.  With Renteria holding up near the second base bag before retreating, Quentin launched a rocket from left field that may have surprised not just Renteria, but his teammates.  It flew about 250 feet, right into Paul Konerko's mitt a split second before Renteria arrived for a 7-3 double play.

That play turned out to be huge, because Floyd walked Jacque Jones (after getting ahead 0-2) and Brandon Inge homered to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.  Had Quentin merely flipped it back to the infield, the Tigers could've built an even bigger lead.

The Tigers needed that run, because Willis couldn't find the plate.  He didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning, but it was only a matter of time until the Sox figured him out.  Quentin nearly missed a three-run homer off Willis in the top of the fourth before grounding into a double play, the second time he's seen the same series of events happen to him.

In the sixth, the Sox offense finally clicked.  Swisher drew a seven-pitch walk, Orlando Cabrera walked on four pitches and Jim Thome doubled to left to score Swisher.  Jim Leyland had seen enough of Willis, who walked seven on the day.

Zach Miner couldn't strand the runners.  He got Konerko to chop out, driving in one run, but after a walk to Dye, Quentin delivered with a single back through the box to tie the game.

Another small play by Dye that led to big results -- on Quentin's single, he ran hard into second, which allowed him to get to third when Clete Thomas couldn't field the ball cleanly.  He scored the Sox's go-ahead run on Joe Crede's sacrifice fly.

Then he dropped the small stuff and gave the Sox a 5-3 lead with his second homer of the year off Francis Beltran.

Gavin Floyd continued his string of success against Detroit with six strong innings, with really only Jones and Inge hurting him.  Along with the homer, Inge had an RBI double to drive in Jones.

Jones and Inge made a ballgame of it in the ninth inning with two outs.  Jones singled and Inge walked to put the tying runs on the bases, but Joe Crede flopped on Thomas' hard grounder to the left side and forced Inge at second for Bobby Jenks' third save in as many days.

Record: 3-2 | Box score | Play-by-play

April 4: White Sox 8, Tigers 5

For the third time in four games, the Sox received a less-than-optimal outing from a starter.  For the first time, the Sox offense managed to overcome it.

And it was cold!  You could see their breath and everything!

The difference right now is the hot hitting of A.J. Pierzynski, who provided the winning margin with a three-run homer off Jason Grilli in the seventh inning.   The Sox treated Grilli like a batting practice pitcher -- Paul Konerko doubled to left on the first pitch, Jermaine Dye got some work in on his inside-out swing, looping one to right on the first pitch he saw.

Pierzynski followed up by launching the first pitch he saw deep into the right field seats for his second homer of the season.  It had to feel especially sweet since Pierzynski didn't come through with two on and one out in his previous at-bat, as he broke his bat and flared out to Edgar Renteria.

The Sox failed to add more in the seventh -- Carlos Quentin and Joe Crede followed with singles and each advanced a base on a wild pitch, but bad baserunning cut the inning short.  Juan Uribe grounded to Brandon Inge, and for some reason, Crede was off on contact.  He ran past Inge, who gave Crede a funny look after looking Quentin back to third, and fired to first for one out.

Crede then started back to second, but Quentin freaked out and ran home, where he was eventually caught in a rundown.  But Crede ended up on second, so not only did they run into a double play, but they lost a base as well.

It felt like that would come back to haunt them, because Sox pitching -- OK, Jose Contreras -- failed to hold the two leads given to him.  Battling poor control and dropping down way too much, Contreras allowed 14 baserunners and threw two wild pitches in five innings.

Yet he kept the Sox in it, thanks to the Tigers' own bad decision on the basepaths.  With runners on second and third and one out in the fifth, Jacque Jones hit a grounder to second that a drawn-in Uribe snagged, and he threw to first for one out.  Konerko alertly saw the runner on second, Ivan Rodriguez, strayed way too far off the bag and made a perfect throw to Orlando Cabrera, who slapped the tag down for the 4-3-6 double play.

That would be it for Contreras, and fortunately for the offense, the bullpen was able to hold a lead.  Boone Logan came in with a runner on in the sixth and threw a scoreless inning, Octavio Dotel only gave up an inside-out single to Magglio Ordonez, Scott Linebrink dominated for a 1-2-3 inning and Bobby Jenks got the ball.

Big Bobby didn't look nearly as sharp, needing 25 pitches to close out the game.  He walked two batters, including Miguel Cabrera on four pitches with only one runner on, bringing the tying run to the plate.  As good as Cabrera is, even if he hits a 5,000-foot homer, the Tigers would still be trailing.  Walking him in that situation is excusable, especially with Jenks' pitches.

Fortunately Dye, whose defense has been much-maligned early on, made a nice diving catch on a slicing Renteria liner to end the game.

Other notes:

• Quentin, who started for the second straight day, his his first homer in a Sox uniform to give the Sox a 2-1 lead. 
  
• Pierzynski drove in two other runs with a double for a five-RBI day.
• Uribe committed his first error on a bad decision, throwing to second on an impossible play instead of taking the out at first.
• Orlando Cabrera avoided being charged for a second time with an error on what could've been a double play ball.  He did, however, make one nice play to his left, and another to his right.
  

Record: 2-2 | Box score | Play-by-play