I should know better than to get comfortable with a huge lead.
The White Sox took a nine-run lead into the seventh, and then watched the bullpen give up all but two runs of it and allowed the tying run to come to the plate in the process. It took another solid effort from Mike MacDougal and Matt Thornton to protect it.
Boone Logan replaced a solid Jon Garland to start the inning, and retired the first hitter he faced. He then failed to retire the next three to load the bases. Then Brandon McCarthy came in and failed to retire the next three men he faced, scoring three runs in the process. Then Dustin Hermanson came in, retired the first man he faced, and then allowed a three-run homer to Kevin Kouzmanoff to make it a 10-8 game.
Hermanson then allowed a double to Hector Luna to bring the tying run to the plate, but he got Joe Inglett to ground out to end the inning -- thanks to a nice stretch on the receiving end by Ross Gload.
MacDougal and Thornton ensured no further drama, putting up 1-2-3 innings in the final two frames to end the game. Ozzie Guillen may have been overmanaging when he brought in Thornton against Shin-Soo Choo for the last out, because the Indians countered with Jason Michaels. But Thornton blew away Michaels for his second save of the year.
The win shouldn't have been this hard, because the offense put up a bunch of early runs off Fausto Carmona, many of them coming with two outs.
Fresh off a four-hit game Friday, Konerko added three more today, with two of them leaving the yard. The first was with two on and two outs in the first inning, picking up Jermaine Dye after a strikeout. They'd start another rally with two down in the second, when Scott Podsednik singled, stole second, and scored on Tadahito Iguchi's single.
Juan Uribe blasted a solo shot with two outs in the third, and then the Sox opened it up in the fourth. Iguchi doubled with two outs, then scored on a triple by Dye, who scored on a single by Jim Thome to make it a 7-1 game. Only when Dye homered to lead off the sixth did the Sox score with less than two outs, and it put Dye within a single of the cycle.
The more incredible aspect of Dye's homer is that it came a half-inning after he saved at least extra bases on an Aaron Rowandesque catch. Ryan Garko hit a deep drive to right, and Dye ran with it and caught it in front of the yellow stripe on the right-field fence. At the same time, his right knee and most of his face banged into the chain-link fence, but he held on to the ball. He took a couple minutes to compose himself, and stayed in the game.
Garland battled through a pesky Indians lineup for six strong innings. He was past 40 pitches when he ended the second, stranding two runners each time in the process. After Choo tripled to lead off the third, Garland settled down. Choo would score on a fielder's choice, but Garland finished his night retiring nine of the last 10 men he faced, with a two-out single by Casey Blake the only blemish.
Record: 82-60 |
Box score |
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