Home cooking is giving the Sox food poisoning.
On the heels of a significant sweep against the Tigers in Detroit, the Sox came crashing down to Earth at home against the Blue Jays. The Sox took a dump at the Cell in a game they were supposed to win, considering Roy Halladay missed a start with a forearm injury and Scott Downs was forced to fill in. They've now lost three straight at home.
After looking sound in his first start, Javy Vazquez suffered the same fate as Jon Garland, getting dinked and dunked to death. Sure, a few balls were hit hard, but I’d say six of the nine hits he allowed could qualify as “well placed.” Unfortunately, he surrendered six hits during the fifth inning, and a 5-2 lead turned into a 7-5 deficit by the time the inning was over. A fine relay between Jermaine Dye and Tadahito Iguchi perhaps saved further damage (although Jermaine missed the relay man on a throw earlier in the inning).
Cliff Politte continued his struggles – Joe Crede held Reed Johnson to a single when it could’ve been a double down the line, but it didn’t really matter when Vernon Wells blasted a no-doubter into the left field seats. Two batters later, Lyle Overbay hit one out, too. Add in a RBI double to Gregg Zaun, and Politte surrended four runs before the inning was over.
He did settle down to throw a 1-2-3 eighth, but Neal Cotts came in and surrendered four hits, including another homer to Troy Glaus. Cotts now has already thrown more gopher balls this year (2) than he did all last year (1).
It’s a little scary when Boone Logan did the best job of any reliever all night. He came in to get one lefty out and then Ozzie pulled him. Overall, Sox pitching has given up 22 runs and 39 hits in the last two games.
The offense wasn’t nearly as efficient as it was Thursday against the Tigers, but it can’t be expected to score 14 runs every night. Pablo Ozuna had another strong day at the leadoff spot going 3-for-5, and this time, he didn’t have any gaffes in left field to mess it up. Jim Thome didn’t homer in his fifth straight game, but he did draw two walks. Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye homered, Joe Crede went 4-for-4, and everybody reached base at least once…
…except for Brian Anderson.
Anderson had another rough day at the plate:
- Striking out with the bases loaded in the second
- Grounding into an inning-ending double play in the third
- Striking out with two on in the fifth
- Flying out in the eighth with a runner on third
- Flying out to end the game
He stranded
nine runners overall, and is currently in a 0-for-16 slump. He’s at least playing solid defense, but it’s definitely putting a strain on the rest of lineup to produce before Anderson can get his hands on the rally.
Record: 5-5 |
Box score |
AP recap