April 12: White Sox 6, Twins 1
The last time they met back in Game 163, Nick Blackburn learned that a high changeup isn’t the best pitch to throw Jim Thome in the second half of a tie game.
Today, he learned that a low fastball down the middle doesn’t work, either.
With a runner on and a full count in the sixth inning, the Gentleman Masher sent Blackburn’s fastball into the right-center seats to give the Sox a 3-1 lead as they fought their way back to .500.
The homer also gave Mark Buehrle a much-deserved win after a no-decision appeared to be the likely outcome.
Delmon Young’s solo homer (and he hit his first homer of the year off Buehrle last year, too) was the only blemish on an otherwise excellent day for Buehrle. He held the Twins to just two hits, and Young’s homer was the last batter to reach. He finished his day after 6 1/3 innings having retired the last 15 batters.
It took a while for the Sox to suport Buehrle, but eventually they began to pile on. They took advantage of some Minnesota mistakes to do it.
Paul Konerko led off the fifth with a single, and he went from first to third on Dewayne Wise’s two-out single. Chris Getz hit a hard grounder to first, and Michael Cuddyer — playing out of position — couldn’t handle it, allowing Konerko to cross the plate and tie the game.
Thome mashed his tater the next inning, and the Sox piled on three more over the next two innings. Josh Fields’ opposite-field single made it a 4-1 game, and Carlos Quentin’s flyball to shallow right was good enough to score pinch-running Brent Lillibridge.
Jermaine Dye’s solo shot off Joe Nathan in the eighth appeared to not mean much, but it took on extra importance when Clayton Richard loaded the bases with nobody out. Bobby Jenks had to put out the fire, and he did just that by striking out Joe Crede, then getting Young to hit into a game-ending 6-3 double play.
Record: 3-3 | Box score | Play-by-play
