Well, the Sox at least avoided a sweep in Motown, and they did get to a starter early for once... but where to start unraveling this mess?
The Sox's situational hitting was great....and then it sucked the rest of the game. Jermaine Dye had a three-run homer after Jim Thome reached with a two-out walk and Paul Konerko singled. Then Jim Thome came through with an RBI ground rule double -- though he strained his hamstring while doing so -- and Paul Konerko followed with an RBI single to make it 6-3.
Freddy Garcia made me ill and angry at the same time, squandering the three-run lead as the Tigers raked him around the yard. Also, Rob Mackowiak was playing center for some unknown reason, and a ball dropped in front of him and Scott Podsednik, and behind Juan Uribe. So after Freddy complained about his offense, he didn't help himself when he finally got some support.
(Brian Anderson did get into this game, but only as a pinch-hitter after Jim Leyland replaced his reliever during a 2-2 count. Anderson got one pitch and struck out, although Pods recorded the strikeout for failing to get a bunt down the first two times.)
But Freddy settled down, and so did the Sox offense. At one point, Freddy had retired 10 in a row, and at one point, the Sox offense stranded two runners in four consecutive innings, and 10 runners overall. The culprits included:
- Dye, flying out harmlessly to center with runners on first and second and no outs in the fourth.
- Podsednik, grounding into an inning-ending double play in the fifth with runners on the corners.
- Alex Cintron, grounding into an inning-ending double play with runners on first and second in the seventh.
After the initial outburst, Joe Crede provided the only run afterwards with his second homer of the game in the seventh, which was a huge insurance run to put the Sox up 7-5. Crede had two homers on the day -- on the first, he somehow managed to pull a shoe-high breaking ball on the outside corner into the left field seats.
Freddy frustrated me all day, as Detroit ran wild on him. They stole two bases (making it 32 for 33 on the year), and Magglio Ordonez was able to go from first to third on a single to left thanks to a huge jump. For all the complaining he does, he doesn't throw his teammates a single bone. ESPN2 didn't show Freddy in the dugout after Matt Thornton gave up a double to Sean Casey scoring the two inherited runners, so I don't know if he threw his hands up in disgust, but at least he can't complain about the offense.
Mike MacDougal and Bobby Jenks finished the game, doing well in a rare high-leverage situation, but had the Sox executed (0-for-5 bunting on the night, with Mackowiak, Uribe and Pods all failing), this one should've been a laugher.
Record: 74-52 |
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