What an enjoyable game to watch. Two pitchers hurling their balls off, some great defense, timely hitting, and all in all, mistake-free baseball. Bobby Jenks even became the third Sox pitcher to record 40 saves in a season, though he allowed a run in the process.
And it only took two hours and 22 minutes, which was awfully considerate for us East Coast folk.
We finally saw Jose Contreras pitch a tremendous ballgame for a second start in a row, throwing eight innings while only allowing a single run when Chone Figgins led an inning off with a triple. Contreras let him score, but with no further damage.
At the start of the game, he took advantage of the Angels' impatience. They're one of the most aggressive teams in the majors, and Contreras made them swing and miss often in the early going, teasing them with a tricky changeup along with his forkball, and he kept the sidearm stuff to a minimum. He struck out five of the first seven batters he faced, and had eight K's overall.
Anaheim caught on during the third time in the order, and Contreras got some help from his defense to escape some jams. After Maicer Izturis drove Figgins in with a single, Orlando Cabrera smoked a liner during a hit-and-run -- right into Joe Crede's mitt. Crede made the easy toss across the diamond for two. Adam Kennedy would end the next inning in a similar fashion when he hit a shot right at Paul Konerko at first. He touched the bag with his mitt to double up Juan Rivera.
John Lackey was just as good, and also got the help with a tricky double play when, on a hit-and-run, Jermaine Dye lined one off Lackey's glove, deflecting into Adam Kennedy's. Kennedy then threw to first to complete the DP.
Unlike Contreras, Lackey had one inning where everything went wrong. He walked Jim Thome to start the inning, left a pitch up for Konerko, who singled to right to put runners on the corners. He then had A.J. Pierzynski lunging for two sinkers in the dirt to put him in the hole, but he left his third pitch low. That's where A.J. was looking, and he golfed a double to right-center for the first run of the game.
Crede followed up with a single, and Rob Mackowiak hit a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. That would be all the offense -- not just in regard to runs, but hits. The only other base knock came when Juan Uribe hit a flare to left that went in and out of Rivera's mitt. Unlike other games, it wasn't the offense's fault. Lackey was just tough, and that's why he's one of the best pitchers in the league. When he did throw hittable stuff, the Sox took advantage.
Jenks survived the ninth, though it didn't look good at the start when he allowed back-to-back singles to Vladimir Guerrero and Garrett Anderson. But Jenks induced a double play off Rivera's bat, and then he struck out Howie Kendrick to end the ballgame. He was grabbing a lot of the plate, but his velocity was back up in the 96-98 m.p.h. range.
Record: 83-61 |
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