Jon Garland answered
some of our questions and helped shake off some of the doubters with a quality performance tonight – and Ozzie Guillen made sure to keep its status as a confidence booster.
After an inefficient
spot start by Brandon McCarthy, Garland followed his possible replacement’s performance with one that nary wasted a pitch. Whereas McCarthy went through 83 pitches in four innings, Garland only tossed 84 pitches in seven, and despite throwing a low-ish percentage of strikes (55 in 84 pitches), he walked zero batters while striking out five.
He probably could’ve gone out for the eighth inning, but considering the Sox offense just put him in line for the win thanks to an RBI single by Jermaine Dye and a two-run double by A.J. Pierzynski (which will raise that .214 average with RISP), Ozzie decided to not push his luck. Garland got the win, lowered his ERA, and gave the game to the good relievers. Neal Cotts and Bobby Jenks closed it out, with Jenks striking out the side in the ninth.
Much like McCarthy’s start, Garland surrendered a pair of homers after falling behind in the count both times. Former Sox Greg Norton (you’re the greatest!) swatted a solo shot in the second inning, bringing back fond memories of the greatest stretch in his career, when he hit five homers during a
three-
game series at Tiger Stadium. Jonny Gomes hit the other one, his 14th of the season.
Garland encountered a couple of rocky spots, but otherwise it was his smoothest start of the year. He finished the start retiring the last nine hitters he faced, and faced the minimum amount of batters in four out of his seven innings.
For awhile, it looked like he would be outdone by the even-more-mediocre Seth McClung, but Dye tied up the game with a solo homer in the fifth and a sac fly in the sixth. He was 3-for-3 with 3 RBI on the day and came through every time the Sox needed him. On the sac fly, he scored Scott Podsednik, who stole second a few batters before. After a shaky start, Pods has now swiped a base in his last 10 attempts.
Record: 26-13 |
Box score |
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