2006 State of the Sox

May 21: Cubs 7, White Sox 4

Jacque Jones has a history of killing the Sox under the most unusual of circumstances.  Last year, he hit a solo homer to not only ruin Freddy Garcia’s no-hit bid, but gave him the loss as well.

Today, he hit a homer off Neal Cotts – only his second hit off a lefty in 20 at-bats – to give a 6-4 lead and eventually the ballgame.  The White Sox didn’t help themselves out, committing a couple of miscues that helped to open the floodgates.

The inning could’ve ended when Todd Walker grounded to second with runners on first and third and one out.  Tadahito Iguchi flipped to Juan Uribe for one, but his throw to first got past Paul Konerko to keep the inning alive.  Michael Barrett hit a triple to the right-center gap past a diving Rob Mackowiak (a ball Brian Anderson may have gotten to), and Jones’ homer capped off the scoring.  

The throw to Konerko wasn’t great – it was low and to Konerko’s right – but Paulie shorted him with a piss-poor “stretch” to try to grab the ball.  The lack of effort prevented Jose Contreras from getting his 14th straight win, and pushed the Sox out of first place.  The Sox had three errors on the day – Joe Crede mishandled a routine grounder, Konerko misplayed a chopper earlier in the game, and then Uribe’s double-play relay toss, whoever you’d like to blame for that.  That one didn’t count since scorers don’t assume the double play, but it was an error in my book.

It was smooth sailing until that point, despite the fact that the Sox did not have a non-homer hit until the seventh inning.  The South Siders based their entire offense off the solo homer, and twice they answered solo homers the Cubs put up in the top of the inning to take the lead.  

Paul Konerko hit an opposite-field homer in the bottom of the second after Aramis Ramirez took a low pitch over the left field wall a couple batters before to tie the game.  Then when Ramirez hit another homer off his shoetops, A.J. Pierzynski homered in the bottom of the fourth to knot it up again.  Once again A.J. found himself in the middle of the controversy when he upset Carlos Zambrano somehow while rounding the bases.  It’s hard to say if A.J. actually did anything because the fist-pumping, chest-beating Z gets offended whenever something doesn’t go his way.  

The Sox finally took the lead when Konerko hit his second homer of the game, this time to left field.  Mackowiak added what was though to be an insurance run at the time with a double down the left-field line, scoring Pierzynski.  Pierzynski reached on a walk in his first at-bat since hitting the controversial homer off Zambrano, and Zambrano looked scared to hit him, walking him on five pitches.  

For most of the day, the Sox and the Cubs were taking opposite approaches at the plate.  The Sox wouldn’t take their bats off their shoulders, even with two strikes.  The Sox were caught looking six times on the day, including Jermaine Dye and Scott Podsednik twice.  On the other hand, everybody aside from Ramirez was against making Contreras work.  In innings four through six, El Conde only threw 20 pitches combined – he didn’t walk anybody and didn’t even get to a three-ball count once.  

Unfortunately, Cotts and the Sox defense let him down.  Thanks to Cotts allowing both inherited runners to score, it was the first time Contreras allowed four earned runs in a game since August 15 of last year.  

Oh, and Cliff Politte allowed another earned run.  At least Boone Logan was sent down.

Record: 28-15 | Box score | Play-by-play