The White Sox started the game failing to convert not one, but two double play balls. Later in the game, they managed to turn three. And Mark Buehrle accomplished something that hadn’t been done in 100 years. That’s the way it went during the weirdest game of the year.
I blame it on the pink bats.
The Sox staked Mark Buehrle to a 3-0 lead starting out the game when Jermaine Dye hit a three-run shot (his 200th) over the center field fence…two batters after Torii Hunter robbed Jim Thome of a three-run homer.
Then Buehrle promptly surrendered the lead by allowing 11 Twins batters to come to the plate, scoring seven runs in all – and only one of them was earned. Buehrle threw away a ball to second trying to turn two. After a single, another double play ball was hit in the direction of Juan Uribe, who lost control trying to shift his ball from glove to hand.
After the miscues by two of the Sox’s most reliable fielders, the Twins went single-sac fly-single-double-single-single-single, and the Twins turned over the lineup with only one out. Guillen had Agustin Montero warming in the pen at that point, that’s how bad it looked.
The one saving grace was that Buehrle only used 29 pitches over 11 batters, which allowed him to stay in the ballgame long enough so Ozzie wouldn’t have to use the less reliable relievers. The Twins were all over his fastball – which Buehrle was throwing on the corners though belt-high, and eventually he turned their impatience against them. It did take some time, though.
Fortunately for the Sox, Carlos Silva remained on the mound – and the Sox offense did a beautiful job of waiting him out. They took the knee-high fastballs that nipped at the corners and waited for him to hang a sinker – and he did that plenty of times. Thome blasted an opposite-field homer in the third, and the Sox took the lead for good in a fourth in which the teams switched roles.
A.J. Pierzynski hit his first homer of the year, but after Juan Uribe single, it was Luis Castillo throwing a double-play ball away on Brian Anderson’s grounder, putting runners on second and third. Scott Podsednik followed up with a two-run triple, and scored when Tony Batista mishandled Tadahito Iguchi’s grounder for the second error of the inning. Paul Konerko then hit a sacrifice fly to cap off the five-run inning, which would complete the scoring.
That’s not to say the game was without its events. In the sixth, Luis Castillo popped up a bunt during which both baserunners were off. It landed in Konerko’s mitt, and he started an easy 3-4-6 triple play to get out of the inning. It was the first Sox triple play since
July 7, 2004.
The other feat hadn’t been accomplished in more than a century, as Buehrle became the first pitcher since 1900 to win a game after allowing seven runs in the first inning. St. Louis'
Jack Powell accomplished the feat on Sept. 29 of that year, when he also held the Cubs scoreless for the rest of the game, though he went the distance. After that horrendous start, Buehrle allowed five hits in five innings, which he got through using a more typical 70 pitches.
Oddly enough, the Sox defense looked great after the horrible first. Uribe made a nifty play where he dodged a barrel of a broken bat that reached him before the ball did, and still got the out at first. Iguchi and Uribe combined on a 4-6-3 double play where Uribe had to launch a rocket to complete it, and Brian Anderson ran down a flyball in the seventh to dead center with two runners on and kept them from advancing. Oh, and Buehrle picked off Juan Castro, his third of the year.
No matter how it happened, Buehrle was able to stick it out long enough to allow Ozzie to use Cliff Politte, Neal Cotts and Bobby Jenks instead of having to delve into the bullpen’s seedy underside. And after Jenks walked Torii Hunter, he was absolutely filthy, getting Michael Cuddyer looking and Justin Morneau swinging on big hooks to end a wild, wild game.
Record: 24-12 |
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