Tuesday, August 08, 2006 - Posts

August 8: White Sox 6, Yankees 5 (11 innings)

Jermaine Dye had another game-winning hit (for that matter, another game-winning single up the middle), but to me, Bobby Jenks is the man of the hour.

Jenks came in and cleaned up a mess left by Neal Cotts (with an assist from Scott Podsednik), then pitched two scoreless innings through extra innings for a well deserved win, a victory the White Sox sorely needed.

One inning after Cotts plunked Jason Giambi with the bases loaded to score the winning run, he allowed a leadoff double to Robinson Cano -- although he took an extra base when Pods got to the ball and hesitated throwing it in, though even in Little League you're taught to throw the ball to second.  The HBP and Cano's two-bagger means lefties/switch hitters have reached base in 12 out of their last 17 plate appearances. 

Jenks came to the rescue after Cotts got Craig Wilson to ground out to second, advancing Cano to third.  Jenks got Melky Cabrera to ground out, freezing the runner at third, and then he struck out Johnny Damon to end the inning.  Jenks would throw two more scoreless frames after that, twice stranding runners on second after a pair of singles, both which turned into doubles on a stolen base and bad pickoff move by Jenks himself.

Moreover, Jenks outdueled one of the greatest closers in baseball history, as Mariano Rivera blew only his third save of the year when Paul Konerko homered to lead off the ninth.  Twice this game, he went with outside pitches to the right-center gap, with an earlier hit falling for a double.  Two innings later, the Sox assembled their game-winning rally when Tadahito Iguchi singled off Cano's glove and Jim Thome walked to lead off the 11th.  After Konerko failed to get the job done this time, flying out to right, Jermaine Dye picked him up with a single on a two-strike, knee-high fastball.

In truth, this was a game the Sox didn't deserve to win, as they played sloppy all over the field.  The bullpen didn't hold the lead -- Matt Thornton allowed two baserunners after getting the first out, Mike MacDougal gave up a hit to Alex Rodriguez on 0-2, and Cotts hit Giambi.  Thankfully, Cotts got Jorge Posada to hit into a double play to end the inning. 

The Sox offense didn't execute much better, wasting four baserunners over the course of the evening.  Podsednik was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple to get the Sox offense started, and Alex Cintron and Brian Anderson were each caught stealing to end innings.  Pablo Ozuna merely was caught stealing for the second out, although given the way he looked back towards the bag, Joe Crede might’ve missed the sign for hit-and-run. 

Rob Mackowiak had an awful game, dropping a ball in the first inning that led to a run, and then grounding into a 1-2-3 double play in the second inning with the bases loaded and no outs.  Thankfully, Cintron, mired in a 1-for-15 slump, poked a single to left to give the Sox a brief lead.  Freddy Garcia would give it up when he allowed a two-run, two-out homer to Rodriguez to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead. 

Garcia allowed two gopher balls on the night, but somehow held the Bombers scoreless to keep the Sox in the game.  More importantly, like Jenks, Garcia outworked his counterpart, Chien-Ming Wang, who only lasted five innings thanks to a patient, if inefficient, Sox offense.

Record: 66-45 | Box score | Play-by-play
posted Tuesday, August 08, 2006 11:59 PM by Jim with 0 Comments