2006 State of the Sox

June 11: Indians 10, White Sox 8

The Sox entered the ninth inning trailing by eight runs – and they ended up bringing the tying run to the plate.  

What should’ve been an embarrassing loss turned into a possible point of pride, as the White Sox tore into the Cleveland bullpen for six ninth-inning runs.  The game ended when Pablo Ozuna flew out to right with A.J. Pierzynski on first – and somehow, Bob Wickman ended up getting the “save.”

Ozuna started the rally with one of his patented 65-foot singles, then advanced to third on Alex Cintron’s double.  Then Brian Anderson, in the midst of a 3-for-32 slump, hit a homer over the center field fence to cut it to 10-5.  It was Anderson’s first homer since May 10, and only his fourth hit with runners in scoring position all year.

But the Sox weren’t done.  Scott Podsednik reached on Ramon Vazquez’s third error of the night – although it would’ve been a difficult play – and Tadahito Iguchi singled to center to put runners on the corners.  Jim Thome came five feet away from cutting the lead to 10-8, but it drove in a run.  Ross Gload singled (he went 2-for-2 tonight) to put runners on the corners, Rob Mackowiak hit a sac fly to drive in Iguchi, A.J. Pierzynski singled to drive in Gload…

…and that’s all they could muster.  But they forced the Indians to use three pitchers in the ninth and came away with some momentum while heading into an important four-game series in Texas, where they need every bit of luck.

The game reminded me of the game against Tampa Bay when Scott Kazmir allowed one run over seven innings, and then they scored six runs off the Devil Ray bullpen to bring the tying run to the plate – they lost that one 10-7.

But Boone Logan wasn’t at fault this time.  It was all Freddy Garcia.  Before Travis Hafner hit yet another homer against White Sox pitching in the sixth, all of Cleveland’s scoring rallies started with a walk.  Garcia walked Ben Broussard to lead off the second, Jason Michaels with one out in the third, and then walked Hafner to lead off the fifth.

That last one would prove fatal – he had Hafner down 0-2 with two good breaking balls, and then threw four straight out of the zone.  Victor Martinez would follow up with his third homer in two games to make it 5-2, and the Indians would pile up more runs after that.  Ronnie Belliard took a first pitch over the left field wall a few batters later (I’m guessing Ed Farmer said “Belliard likes the first pitch” just beforehand) for another two-run homer, and that pushed his ERA on the season over 5.00.

Freddy’s had three bad starts in a row after winning his seventh game of the year over the Cubs.  He’s allowed 21 earned runs in his last 23 innings, surrendering 37 hits during that stretch.  The one thing that hadn’t been a factor was walks, with only two in his prior three starts.  Losing control is the last thing he needs, with all the hits he’s giving up.  

That fifth inning ruined the momentum the Sox gained in the bottom of the third, though they could’ve done more with the inning.  Cintron hit his second homer of the year with one out, and then Anderson singled (first multi-hit game since May 14), though Podsednik failed on his sac bunt attempt.  Iguchi and Thome hit back-to-back singles to make it 3-2.

The offense had a chance to give Freddy a lead to work with when they had runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs in the fourth, but Joe Crede bounced into a 4-6-3 double play, and Anderson struck out to end the threat.  Afterwards, they went into “Mail it in against Jake Westbrook” for the second time.  Before Gload’s two-out double in the eighth, Westbrook went 15 straight batters without allowing a ball out of the infield.  

Sean Tracey’s outing was interesting.  He was all over the place, walking two, throwing two wild pitches, and hitting Hafner.  Tracey nearly got Martinez in the same place, and Martinez stared at Tracey for about 15 seconds.  Aside from a grooved 2-0 pitch to Jason Michaels, nobody made solid contact off him.  He broke a couple bats, got some weak pop-ups, but he could use some seasoning.  His first pitch to Michaels in that at-bat nearly missed the left-handed batter’s box entirely on its way to the backstop, but with no runners on, it didn’t count as a wild pitch.

Record: 38-24 | Box score | Play-by-play