At the top of the seventh inning in
the South Side Sox game thread, as the Sox clung to a 3-2 lead, I said:
This game has all the makings of an Oakland heartreaker.
Not like that was hard to predict in the House of Horrors.
What were the ingredients?
No. 1: Early lead, with nothing much afterward! The Sox jumped on Dallas Braden's first and second pitches for three runs in the first, alternating blasts (A.J. Pierzynski's solo homer, Jermaine Dye's double off the top of the wall) with bloops (weak singles by Carlos Quentin and Jim Thome) for a quick 3-0 lead. Then Braden figured he should throw more changeups on fastball counts, and the Sox were pretty quiet after that.
Quentin did hit a majestic solo shot off Jerry Blevins in the eighth, but unfortunately the Sox couldn't capitalize.
No. 2: Baserunning outs! Alexei Ramirez was both caught stealing and picked off (the latter, in the ninth by Huston Street with one out,
was eminently predictable). Brian Anderson's one ending the eighth hurt the most. With two outs, Blevins picked off Anderson, but his throw sailed into the vast right-field foul territory at McAfee Coliseum. Anderson hesitated around second, then went for third and home and was thrown out at the plate by Daric Barton.
You could pin this one on Jeff Cox, but I don't know how well first baseman's outfield arms are scouted. Paul Konerko and Nick Swisher wouldn't have made that throw.
No. 3: Bad defense! Quentin let Frank Thomas' liner skip through the wickets in the first, but it didn't do any damage. But when Thomas skied a pop-up in foul territory and Juan Uribe couldn't catch it, that one hurt.
It was hard to tell who was at fault. Uribe couldn't even get his glove on it, but he was charging all the way from a deep third base. A.J. Pierzynski, since it was only about 20 feet away from home plate, should've taken responsibility. Alas, Thomas singled and Jack Cust homered to cut the lead to 3-2.
No. 4: Bad pitches! Gavin Floyd had one foot on the brink of disaster all night. His good curve wasn't with him, and he used a ton of pitches even after getting ahead a lot of the night. He was pulled after 110 with two outs in the fifth.
But Octavio Dotel's fastballs posed a bigger problem. Mark Ellis hammered one out to cut the lead to one again, and then he made the mistake of throwing Cust an 0-2 fastball that was far too strikey. Cust deposited it over the left-field wall for homer No. 2 and a tie game.
No. 5: Bad managing! Horacio Ramirez in the ninth? Ozzie Guillen felt he was necessary, and thus Bob Geren summoned Sox-killer Emil Brown off the bench. He'd double, and his pinch runner would advance to third on a bunt before scoring on...
No. 6: Kurt Suzuki's walk-off! Suzuki ended the game by homering off D.J. Carrasco when a sac fly would do. He did
the same off Matt Thornton almost exactly one year to this date.
Record: 68-53 |
Box score |
Play-by-play