2006 State of the Sox

June 24: White Sox 6, Astros 5 (10 innings)

The Sox finally broke the eight-win barrier to record their ninth consecutive victory, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat with some help from a couple Astros relievers who made the World Series sweep possible.  

After being shut down for six innings, the Sox offense finally started something against Taylor Buchholz when Jim Thome drew a one-out walk.  Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye singled to load the bases, and Joe Crede came to a plate while Phil Garner made a pitching change.  

Guess who came in?  None other than Chad Qualls, who surrendered a grand slam under similar circumstances on his first pitch to Paul Konerko.  Joe Crede obviously remembered what happened, because on the first pitch he saw from Qualls, he blasted it just right of the left-field foul pole to tie the game at 5, and it gave the Sox their second grand slam in as many days.

Before that point, the Sox could only muster two hits against Buchholz, one of them Scott Podsednik’s single leading off the first inning.  He stole second, advanced to third and scored on Thome’s sacrifice fly.  That was the scoring up until Crede’s blast, and the slam helped rescue Jon Garland, who didn’t have his sharpest stuff.

Thanks to five walks, Garland couldn’t get past the fifth.  One to Orlando Palmeiro in the fourth set off a chain of hits that led to three Astros runs to give Houston a 5-1 lead.  The one redeeming point about Jon’s day is that he didn’t allow a home run for his third straight start.  Otherwise, you could call it a lost day, and the Sox defense looked disinterested behind him.

But that would be all the runs Houston would score thanks to excellent relief work, especially by the newest additions in the Sox bullpen, David Riske and Matt Thornton.  The two combined to throw four innings of shutout ball, striking out four while only allowing two baserunners; neither reached scoring position.  Brandon McCarthy also threw a scoreless inning, but provided a scare when he left the bases loaded.

The relievers helped set up the 10th inning, when Dan Wheeler came into the game and gave up a leadoff double to Rob Mackowiak.  He’d intentionally walk A.J. Pierzynski to get to Juan Uribe, who bunted them to second and third.  An intentional walk to Scott Podsednik only would delay the end of the game, as Alex Cintron stroked a single to right that short-hopped a drawn-in Lance Berkman for his third game-winning hit of the season, giving the Sox that elusive nine-game winning streak and a shot at first place by day's end.

Record: 49-25 | Box score | Play-by-play