Jermaine Dye owes Jim Thome a steak dinner. Joe Crede owes Javier Vazquez an apology.
Thome, in the midst of an 0-for-16 slump, came through with a two-out RBI single off Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth inning that ended up providing the winning run. The single was a surprise in and of itself, but it also came after Jermaine Dye nearly crushed his team's chances.
A.J. Pierzynski led off the inning with a hustle double to the right-center gap off the Angels' closer. Carlos Quentin executed his version of a sacrifice bunt -- a fly to right center on which Reggie Willits made a leaping catch at the wall -- setting the table for Dye.
Dye got his pitch -- a 3-1 curveball, thigh high and over the middle of the plate. Dye popped it straight up, and Casey Kotchman caught it in foul territory for out No. 2. But lo and behold, Thome took a 1-0 fastball and lined it over the second baseman's head to score Pierzynski.
Bobby Jenks retired the top of the Angels' order 1-2-3 to end the game relatively peacefully.
Thome's heroics may not have been necessary had Joe Crede executed a player he makes 99 1/2 times out of 100. With a 3-2 game, runners on second and third in the bottom of the seventh with two outs, Ozzie Guillen called for Matt Thornton to face Garret Anderson.
Thornton did his job. Anderson hit a weak chopper to third -- and it clanked off Crede's mitt. Tie ballgame, runners on the corners, and still two outs.
Crede would eventually get the job done two batters later, when he handled a routine Casey Kotchman for a 5-4 fielder's choice. Octavio Dotel, though he walked Torii Hunter, stranded two more runners (making it nine in a row), and went 1-2-3 in the eighth inning.
Of course, the Sox should've had a bigger lead considering the amount of baserunners they had on Jon Garland.
They did score three off Garland in the second thanks to a boatload of good luck. They loaded the bases on a weak single, a walk and another weak single. Juan Uribe might've thwarted the inning singlehandedly had he not ended up on the winning side of two close calls.
The first -- Uribe's shattered-bat grounder to short. Erick Aybar flipped it to Maicer Izturis for the forceout at second, and Izturis made a great turn -- but Uribe was called safe at first, perhaps incorrectly. He may also been incorrectly called safe at second one batter later. Orlando Cabrera hit a deep enough fly to right. Uribe went to advance on Vladimir Guerrero's throw, but it was cut off and redirected to second. Uribe slid and was called safe, when he may not have been. And if he were called out, the run wouldn't have counted.
Uribe came around to score on Pierzynski's double (he went 3-for-5), and the Sox gained a 3-2 lead. They made Garland throw more than 40 pitches in the inning, but they couldn't score on him again. They stranded two in the first and one apiece in the third, fourth and fifth.
Vazquez outpitched Garland handily after a first inning in which the Angels touched him up for three hits and two runs. He ran into trouble in the third after hitting Casey Kotchman to put two on, but worked out of it with a grounder down the first base line to end the inning. He then went on to retire 12 out of the next 13.
Record: 20-20 |
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