Carlos Quentin came through with another big hit and the White Sox bullpen barely held onto a one-run deficit to give Gavin Floyd the win he should've received the last time around.
Down 5-2 after Floyd gave up his seventh homer of the season, the Sox defied expectations and retook the lead. It started when Joe Crede reached on an Andy Marte error, and Alexei Ramirez lined a single to center. Orlando Cabrera blew his second sacrifice bunt attempt of the day (and third in a row), but A.J. Pierzynski picked him up with a double to left field, on which Ramirez crossed the plate limping with a hamstring cramp.
Quentin then smashed a grounder between Marte and the third base line to give the Sox a 6-5 lead, which Octavio Dotel, Scott Linebrink and Bobby Jenks would keep intact despite some scares.
Dotel walked Grady Sizemore to lead off the seventh, and for some reason, Eric Wedge decided to sacrifice him over to second with Jamey Carroll instead of opting for the straight steal off A.J. Pierzynski. Dotel was glad to take the out, and he struck out Ben Francisco and got Victor Martinez to strike out to end the inning.
Linebrink didn't have a runner reach scoring position, but the balls sounded scary off the bat -- first a warning-track shot by David Dellucci, then a crushed liner to third by Jhonny Peralta on which Crede made a Gold Glove-caliber play.
With Jenks on the mound, Crede's glove betrayed him in the ninth. He booted a short hop on a Ryan Garko grounder, and a Jenks walk of Sizemore put the Tribe in business. Another successful sac bunt by Carroll later, Cleveland had runners on second and third with one out. But Francisco popped out to first on the first pitch and Martinez popped out to Cabrera to end the game.
Floyd improved to 5-3 despite allowing two big innings. He could chalk up the first inning to bad luck -- a bunt, a seeing-eye single through the right side, a nubber off the end of the bat (followed by a Floyd error) and a cheap infield single by Martinez gave Cleveland a quick 2-0 lead with no outs. But Floyd bore down, striking out Dellucci on an awesome 3-2 slider, getting Peralta to line out hard to Crede and striking out Aubrey to end the threat.
He started to miss spots in the sixth, and it was extra frustrating considering he started the inning getting ahead of Martinez 1-2. On that count, Martinez called time as Floyd started his windup, similar to what Cabrera did to Paul Byrd
in the opener Monday. Like Byrd, Floyd unraveled. He gave up three straight extra-base hits -- a double by Martinez, a double by Dellucci (misplayed by Jermaine Dye) and a homer by Peralta that gave the Indians the lead.
In between, however, Floyd looked great, retiring 15 of 17 batters at one stretch. Most importantly, he pounded the strike zone. He threw 76 of 107 pitches for strikes and didn't walk a batter while striking out seven.
Jermaine Dye hit his ninth homer in the fourth, and the Sox seized their first lead of the game an inning later. The Sox loaded the bases after singles by Crede and Ramirez and a walk to Cabrera. A.J. Pierzynski hit a chopper that could only be turned into a forceout at first to tie it, and Quentin put the Sox ahead with a sacrifice fly. It wasn't hit deep, but Ramirez took off from third and managed to make it around Martinez with an acrobatic slide.
Record: 29-23 |
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