I spent a little time before this series going over how only two of the White Sox’s eight wins against the Royals have been of the solid variety.
Make that three of nine, as the Sox received a nice outing from Jon Garland and plenty of offense in the form of an eight-run explosion off Mark Redman in the fourth inning.
Jim Thome started it, and Thome would put the exclamation point on it when he went deep for his 36th homer of the year. In between, RBI base hits by A.J. Pierzynski, Joe Crede, Brian Anderson and Tadahito Iguchi kept the line moving.
Anderson had a perfect day at the plate, with two singles and his sixth homer of the year . He also drew a walk to raise his on-base percentage of over .300, and his batting average to .225. Perhaps my estimate of .235 by season’s end was too conservative.
Meanwhile, Garland held up his end. He only walked one batter, and of course, he was the only guy that came around to score on Garland, who won his 13th ballgame. Otherwise, he stayed in control and let the Royals retire themselves.
Brandon McCarthy finished the game, and allowed a homer to John Buck leading off the ninth. He’s now given up 11 homers in 63 1/3 innings, which is a slight bit troubling. But as long as he’s giving them up in 10-run ballgames, there’s not a lot of reason to complain.
Record: 71-46 |
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