See Ozzie? You don’t have to
go to great lengths to get your bench involved against the Seattle Mariners. All you have to do is play your regulars, let them get a huge lead against a shoddy Mariners staff, and the rest will take care of itself.
Just like in Little League, everybody got to play at Safeco Field as the Sox offense steamrolled Mariners pitching and Javier Vazquez held up his end for the most resounding Sox victory on the season.
After Joel Piniero held the Sox scoreless through the first two innings, Chicago proceeded to score in the next six mainly using a variety of extra-base hits. The stolen base actually worked(
!!!) to kickstart the offense when Brian Anderson and Scott Podsednik executed a double-steal. Adrian Beltre actually looked like he got the tag down, but Kenji Johjima’s throw was so far towards second base that he didn’t get the benefit if the doubt from the umpire.
Tadahito Iguchi drove them both in with an RBI double after failing to lay down a sacrifice bunt on the first pitch, once again proving that you can’t take the bat out of his hands. Paul Konerko homered two batters later, and away they went.
When the dust cleared, the Sox scored in six straight innings, putting up crooked numbers in innings No. 6-8 to make this ballgame not much of one. Joe Crede homered, Jermaine Dye homered twice, Iguchi homered, Paulie had an RBI ground rule double and Jim Thome added an RBI single to the right-field corner.
Jermaine’s second homer was a rude greeting to Bobby Livingston, who was making his major-league debut. Livingston started his career by striking out Thome on three pitches, which nearly drove the Mariners’ announcer to orgasm. It didn’t last long, as Livingston was shelled and pulled before he could complete two innings.
A.J. Pierzynski had two hits for his fourth multi-hit game in his last five, Pods had three hits, Anderson had two walks – everybody did something with the bat except for Juan Uribe, who at least played solid defense. Even Ross Gload got a hit leading off the eighth with a triple, leaving Chris Widger as the only Sox batting .000 on the season.
Meanwhile, Javier Vazquez’s stuff looked electric once again – all his pitches have movement, with his fastball tailing in on right-handed hitters and his changeup fading away. He started off by allowing an infield single to Ichiro, and a Johjima single was the only other hit he allowed through six – he was no-hitting the West.
He started off the sixth with a walk and a single, and since that pushed him over the 100-pitch limit he was pulled for Boone Logan. Logan looked afraid of the strike zone, hitting two batters, walking in a run, and allowing a few hits and a few more hard-hit balls that were called for outs.
Sure, Logan recorded his first major-league save (pitching three innings “effectively” in an 11-run ballgame), but here’s hoping that’s his last major-league outing for the foreseeable future. He’s now 4-for-4 in allowing inherited runners to score, which won’t show in his decent-looking 2.70 ERA.
Record: 14-6 |
Box score |
Play-by-play