More notes -- will resume full recap form starting Tuesday.
*Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez took a couple of ~88 mile-per-hour fastballs delivered by Freddy Garcia over the left field wall in the first inning, but nobody could catch up when he was hitting 94 on the gun on his 110th and 115th pitches of the game. He was throwing the ball much harder at Pitch No. 110 than he was at Pitch No. 10. That's just a little bit ridiculous. Why can't anybody figure out how to fix this?
*There's no reason why Rob Mackowiak should be playing center nowadays, as long as Brian Anderson is physically able to perform his duties.
*Melky Cabrera's tremendous throw to get Joe Crede at home displayed the stark contrast between the two left fielders in this game. Earlier in the game, Cabrera scored easily on a short flyball to left field. Scott Podsednik's throw wasn't even close.
*However, Pods had a plus game overall, reaching base four times and scoring two runs. On the other hand, Tadahito Iguchi reached base five times and didn't score once!
*One time was his fault, when he was caught off third base on Paul Konerko's grounder to third. Iguchi was tagged out at home, but Jim Thome did a nice job of advancing from second to third when he saw Iguchi commmit to home.
*Jermaine Dye made it not matter when he grounded into a 5-4-3 double play. Jermaine isn't the slowest guy on the team by far, but I'm worried about his acceleration. Maybe he's still worried about his leg, but he had as much pickup as the old 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais I used to drive (0-to-60 in 13.5 seconds!). He should've beaten it out easily, and the Sox should've had two runs on the board instead of one.
*Thome nullified his good baserunning when he was forced out at second from right field on Paul Konerko's single-turned-fielder's choice. Thome held up to let the ball go through, but he eased up going into second, and Bubba Crosby's alert throw beat him to the bag. They should've had runners on first and second -- and maybe second and third, since a wild pitch was thrown -- with no outs. One out made the difference.
*Juan Uribe failed in a bunt attempt off Mariano Rivera, then popped out. Scott Podsednik followed with a double play. That would've been a great time for Rob Mackowiak to pinch hit, except he was starting for some reason.
*Neal Cotts looked much better in comparison to his last outing.
*The Sox were swept for the first time all season.
Record: 57-34 |
Box score |
Play-by-play