2006 State of the Sox

June 3: White Sox 8, Rangers 6

White Sox pitchers couldn’t keep the hottest-hitting Rangers at bay, so the defense had to chip in.  Jermaine Dye and Tadahito Iguchi made key snags for the first and last outs of a tension-filled eighth inning that nearly saw a lead evaporate once again.  Instead, the Sox ended their losing streak at four, which tied the longest for the season.

Neal Cotts started the inning off with a walk, and then Cliff Politte came in to retire batters at his usual rate – one for three.  The only out was on a laser off the bat of Gary Matthews Jr., who killed the Sox last night.  But Dye ran it down, making a beautiful catch at full-speed and getting the throw back in time to keep runners from advancing.  It saved Politte’s skin, because he would leave with the bases loaded, bringing in Matt Thornton.

Thornton actually pitched really well, getting a pop-up from Mark Teixeira and a dink shot off Hank Blalock.  Unfortunately, Blalock’s dribbler ended up in no man’s land between the mound and first, and Ross Gload couldn’t do anything with it.  With righty Mark DeRosa up (who was 3-for-4 at the time), Ozzie brought Bobby Jenks in.  Three pitches later, DeRosa hits a rocket that appears destined to tie the game – until Iguchi leapt and brought it down to save the game. 

Iguchi’s grab saved what should’ve been a laugher, after the White Sox scored seven runs in the bottom of the fourth for their biggest single inning of the year.  At one point, seven straight batters reached base off Vicente Padilla and Joaquin Benoit, thanks in part to Buck Showalter’s managing. 

William Nathaniel replaced Padilla as Jermaine came to the plate, and in his first two at-bats against Padilla, Dye swung seven times and whiffed on six of them.  Instead of seeing whether or not Jermaine would continue having no clue where the ball is, Showalter brought in Benoit, who walked Jermaine on four straight pitches.  The line kept moving, and the Sox scored two more runs – which would prove to be the margin of victory.

It was surprising that in a high scoring game, no homers were hit.  Both teams had sustained rallies without any really hard-hit balls.  Javier Vazquez pitched well enough for the win, even though he allowed 11 hits and five earned runs in 6 1/3 innings.  Most of those singles were of the seeing-eye variety, and they came in bunches.  In a two-run third inning, Texas had five straight batters reach base, four times on singles.  Two innings later, the Rangers strung together four singles plus a sacrifice run for three more. 

Record: 34-21 | Box score | Play-by-play