2006 State of the Sox

June 29: Pirates 7, White Sox 6

After 13 straight losses, the Pirates were finally able to pull one out after Freddy Sanchez hit a walk-off homer leading off the bottom of the ninth.  It's funny to use the phrase "pull one out" considering this was a game the Sox had no business winning from start to finish, and if it weren't for Jim Thome, the Pirates would've cruised to the finish line.

Cliff Politte picked up where he left off in his return from the DL.  After working a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth, Ozzie decided to push his luck -- with Bobby Jenks standing at the bullpen door -- by sending Politte out to start the ninth.  The inning didn't last long, and it ended with the Pirates jumping on top of Sanchez -- and each other -- at home plate.

It was a miserable end to a miserable game, featuring miserable weather in the form of a 30-minute rain delay.  Fortunately, the vending stands had plenty of napkins, so it wasn't an issue returning to the seat. 

The Sox offense did enough, staking Jose Contreras to a 2-0 lead in the first, and then a 4-2 lead in the second when Alex Cintron hit a two-run double capping a two-out rally.  But Contreras surrendered the lead both times,  allowing a two-run double to Jason Bay to tie it up after one inning, and allowing the Pirates to chip away thereafter. 

Contreras just plain wasn't effective for his second straight start.  Unlike his last start, when he struggled to find the strike zone, his control was there.  The problem was that he allowed Pittsburgh to wear him down by fouling off a lot of pitches, and it might've frustrated him.

It could've been worse for the Sox had Jose Bautista not run himself into two outs.  He was thrown out trying to go from first to third on an errant Contreras pickoff attempt, because he slid at second.  Then he was thrown out by Chris Widger trying to steal second for no good reason in the sixth inning.  It was only the fourth time Widger had thrown somebody out in 40 attempts, and it was the only thing Widger did right all day.  He was a black hole in the sixth spot, going 0-for-5 and stranding seven runners.

A couple of nice pinch-hit appearances nearly helped the Sox steal this game.  In the eighth inning, Rob Mackowiak singled off Roberto Hernandez, and Thome followed up by crushing the first pitch he saw over the right field wall to tie the game. 

Record: 51-27 | Box score | Play-by-play