2006 State of the Sox

September 19: White Sox 7, Tigers 0

Who'da thunk that Freddy Garcia is two hits and two innings away from being the next Johnny Vander Meer?  I guess that's why he's Big Game Freddy.

Fresh off his eight-inning one-hitter against Anaheim, Freddy goes and does it again, with only three slight differences.  One was that he gave up the lone single to the second batter he faced, not the 24th, he walked two batters instead of none, and had five strikeouts instead of three.  But he did retire 23 straight hitters again, and he did win another key ballgame.

Freddy only saw a jam in the first inning, when he walked Curtis Granderson on four straight pitches and gave up a single through the hole to Ivan Rodriguez.  The Tigers didn't advance any further, going line-out, pop-out, pop-out to end the threat.  The only other baserunner would reach with two outs in Freddy's last inning of work, when Brandon Inge walked after an eight-pitch at-bat. 

He attacked hitters once again, getting a lot of pop-ups on high fastballs, and weak groundouts on that splitter he's throwing more effectively. 

Also for the second straight start, Freddy received the benefit of the big bats, although they didn't show up right away.  Justin Verlander (AKA Justin The Incredible Fudge Factory Verlander) didn't allow a hit until the fourth, when Paul Konerko singled after Jermaine Dye was hit by a pitch and Jim Thome walked to load the bases. 

So yeah, the Sox had the bases loaded with less than two outs, and I was none too thrilled.  This time, however, A.J. Pierzynski capitalized.  Verlander had him down 1-2 in the count, and tried to strike him out with the same pitch he K'd him on in the second inning -- a curve in the dirt.  A.J. didn't bite, and he looked low the next pitch.  It was a fastball at his shins, and much like he did against Cleveland's Tom Mastny on September 8, Pierzynski golfed it into the right-center seats for a grand slam.

For whatever reason, what the Sox can't do against Kenny Rogers, they can do against Verlander.  The veteran has four wins against the Sox; Verlander's loss tonight was his fourth of the season against Chicago. 

The Sox actually scored all their runs tonight via the long ball, although it wasn't like they failed to execute in other areas.  That's just how the game worked out.  Dye and Thome went back-to-back, and Tadahito Iguchi surpassed his home run total for last season with a solo shot in the seventh for the final run.

They might've had another run in the sixth, as Scott Podsednik was on base preceding Dye's homer.  But with a 2-0 count, Pods tried taking off while Verlander was in the stretch.  He didn't make it. 

Record: 85-66 | Box score | Play-by-play