2006 State of the Sox

May 3: White Sox 6, Mariners 5 (11 innings)

Tonight’s game has earned the top spot as the craziest game of the year so far, and it’s not even close.  How crazy was it?  So crazy that we'll refer to it from here on out as the Pablo Ozuna Game.

This was three stories crammed into one – the first a classic pitcher’s duel, the second an ugly display of bad relief pitching and piss-poor fundamentals, and there aren’t words for the third.  Perhaps it's not a coincidence that this was the first game Ross Gload actually got to start.

GAME 1:  Gil Meche and Freddy Garcia went toe-to-toe for the first six innings – Garcia threw an alarming number of breaking balls again, but tonight it actually worked for him.  He was getting ahead of hitters, and induced plenty of half-assed swings.  Freddy paid for the only time he lost control – he plunked Jose Lopez leading off the fourth, and two batters later old friend Carl Everett knocked him home with a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.

On the other side, Gil Meche looked like a poor man’s Javy Lopez.  A little less velocity, but as much movement on his fastball, and the Sox didn’t get a lot of good swings on him through six.  They didn’t help themselves out either – Podsednik was picked off after walking in the first inning, and they didn’t mount a threat until the seventh.  Freddy had 72 pitches through seven, and Meche was economical as well.

GAME 2:  Jim Thome led off the seventh with a walk.  Then Paul Konerko followed by ripping an inside fastball just short of the wall down the left field line, putting runners on second and third.  Meche walked A.J. Pierzynski intentionally, creating perhaps the slowest bases-loaded situation in MLB history in the process.

Joe Crede made speed a non-factor by taking the first pitch from Rafael Soriano one foot beyond the left field wall for the first White Sox grand slam on the season and a 4-1 lead.  It was reminiscent of Paulie’s Game 2 slam in the World Series – facing a reliever who just entered the game, Crede looked for first fastball up, got it and pounced on it.  

The lead didn’t last long as the Sox embarrassed themselves from there on out.  Freddy got into trouble with a Jeremy Reed leadoff double and a Kenji Johjima RBI single.  

Enter Matt Thornton, who gave up a weak chopper through the infield to Willie Bloomquist during a nine-pitch at-bat.  It surprised me it got through since Iguchi should've been shaded over in double-play depth.  Another chopper to Ichiro put runners on second and third.

Enter Cliff Politte, who got Jose Lopez down 0-2 while Lopez was ostensibly looking to push something towards right field.  So what does Cliff do?  Gives him a thigh-high fastball over the outer half of the plate and Lopez knocks a solid single through to tie the game.  Terrible, awful, no good, very bad 0-2 pitch.  

Two batters later after an intentional walk, they get a double play ball – and Iguchi airmails the throw when Ibanez barrels into his lower half.  The Mariners get the lead, and that was that.  

The Sox didn’t mount a threat for the rest of the game – Iguchi looked bad when he was up 3-0 on Rafael Soriano, then proceeded to watch three hittable fastballs in a row to strike out looking.  The only true highlight after Crede’s slam was Brian Anderson’s fantastic diving catch with one out in the ninth.  That was until…

GAME 3:  Pablo Ozuna homered off Eddie Guardado with two outs in the ninth.  

Pablo Ozuna.  Homered.  Off Eddie Guardado.  With two outs.  In the ninth.  

And it was a legit homer.  He hit it so hard he actually got to stare at it while jogging around the bases.  It’s the first career major-league homer for the SOB in 334 at-bats, and he gets to stare it into the stands.  Unbelievable.  

After Neal Cotts and Bobby Jenks held the Mariners scoreless through three extra innings, it was Ozuna again with two outs, hitting a seeing-eye single through the middle, which he stretched into a double when he saw Reed playing way too deep.  Then Juan Uribe, he of the .165 average, dropping in a bloop single between center, left and short to drive in Ozuna to end the game, with Reed playing too deep once again.

Pablo Ozuna – the Secret Weapon – sunk the Mariners by himself.  Now let that sink in.

Record: 19-8 | Box score | Play-by-play