This time, Mark Buehrle got to watch the other team's pitching unravel.
Coming off his shortest start ever, Buehrle pitched seven strong innings and lowered his ERA on the season to 8.31. More importantly, he pitched like a No. 1 starter, going toe to toe with Justin Verlander under bad defense and bad luck undermined the Detroit ace.
With a 3-1 lead in the fifth, the Sox pulled away with the most underwhelming of starts. Paul Konerko grounded to third, but Carlos Guillen didn't stride into the throw at first and dropped the ball.
Jermaine "Doubles" Dye lived up to his name, and an intentional walk to A.J. Pierzynski loaded the bases. Carlos Quentin flashed his incredible HBP skills, and drew first blood by drawing a fastball to his side. Joe Crede followed with an RBI infield single to short, with Quentin sliding in before Edgar Renteria's attempt to force him at second. Four of the Sox's five baserunners at this point reached without getting the ball out of the infield.
Verlander got the second out of the inning by striking out Juan Uribe, but Nick Swisher -- who homered off Verlander to lead off the game -- looped a single to center. Verlander departed, and Orlando Cabrera cleared the bases with a double to right-center to extend the Sox's lead to 9-1.
Buehrle didn't allow the Tigers to get back in the game. The double play was his biggest friend all night, as the Tigers grounded into them four times. Tigers cracked him for their only earned run in the seventh, when A.J. Pierzynski didn't catch a high fastball and it hit home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg on the side of the mask, bringing in the run from third with two outs.
The Tigers' best chance to rock Buehrle was in the third, when Joe Crede threw wide to first on a Brandon Inge, resulting in a three-base error, the first of two Crede errors on the night. Inge scored on Ramon Santiago's double, but Santiago got greedy and tried turning it into a triple. A perfect relay from Dye to Uribe beat Santiago to third by plenty, and he didn't reach the bag on his slide.
Other notes:
- Both times Pierzynski was intentionally walked, Quentin made them pay. The first IBB was understandable, but Leyland called for the free pass to load the bases with two outs, and the Tigers down 7. Quentin launched one over the head of center fielder Clete Thomas for a bases-clearing triple.
- Crede had three RBI singles, and Pablo Ozuna could probably make fun of him for how soft they were. The infield single drove in one, a single that somehow got past Carlos Guillen to the right side, and he blooped one over the head of the second baseman the third time around.
- The day after making the greatest throw in recent White Sox history, Quentin dropped an easy fly to extend Mike MacDougal's night. MacDougal walked Inge to load the bases, but induced a fifth double play to end the game.
- Uribe had a nice game defensively. Along with the relay throw, he also made a diving snare of a liner to his left, and had a perfect night on the pivot.
Record: 4-2 |
Box score |
Play-by-play