I'll say this about the Sox offense: They may have scored fewer runs than they should've against Barry Zito, but they at least appeared to have a plan.
The struggling San Francisco $124 million man allowed 14 baserunners over five innings -- the same amount of runners the Sox stranded on the evening -- but waiting him out and using the opposite field paid dividends for the two quick runs they did score.
Orlando Cabrera and Pablo Ozuna started off with two singles, and Carlos Quentin drove home the first run with a sacrifice fly. The following inning, Alexei Ramirez scored an infield single, and Toby Hall flipped one out to center. After a perfect Mark Buehrle bunt, Cabrera scored Ramirez with a sac fly for a 2-0 lead.
Unfortunately, the Sox spoiled some golden opportunities:
First inning: With Ozuna on second and one out, Jermaine Dye hit a grounder to short and Ozuna ran right into it. No excuses there.
Second inning: Zito walked Ozuna on four pitches and Carlos Quentin on five to load the bases with two outs, but Dye hit a lazy fly to right to strand three.
Third inning: Hall's broken bat single put runners on the corners with two outs, but Buehrle popped out weakly to first.
Fourth inning: A walk by Cabrera and a Quentin single put runners on first and second with no outs, but Dye flew out to center and Paul Konerko grounded a ball he shouldn't have pulled to short.
Fifth inning: Zito walked Nick Swisher, but Alexei Ramirez chased a changeup. Hall followed with his third single, but Buehrle struck out trying to bunt an 0-2 12-to-6 curve and Cabrera bounced out to short.
When you factor in that both pitchers were working with a small strike zone, Zito had no control of his fastball and he allowed the leadoff hitter to reach in four out of five innings, the Sox should've done far more damage. Giants color guy Mike Krukow put it well -- without his fastball, it was like a race car driver trying to win the Indianapolis 500 with three tires.
Only when Zito came out of the game could the Sox score with two outs. Jermaine Dye singled and advanced to second when Keichii Yabu threw away a pickoff throw. Konerko took an outside-corner fastball and lined a single to right-center for a 3-1 lead.
Buehrle himself could've been sharper himself, but he finally received some help from his defense. Ozuna, playing third for a sore Joe Crede, erased leadoff runner Randy Winn in the first by snaring a line drive and throwing to first in time to get Winn for a double play, the first of three twin killings on the night.
He ran into trouble in the seventh. Aaron Rowand led off with a double that short-hopped the left-field wall. Rich Aurilia grounded out hard to Ozuna, but Jose Castillo's soft grounder to third was enough for a hit.
Buehrle nearly pitched around it by striking out Dan Ortmeier with a high fastball, but a tough walk to Steve Holm loaded the bases and ended his night.
Octavio Dotel came to the rescue once again. He left his 10th, 11th and 12th consecutive runners stranded by overpowering Winn with fastballs, the last one registering at 95 m.p.h.
Record: 22-20 |
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