August 7: Indians 6, White Sox 2
Considering Mark Buehrle dug himself into a 4-0 hole, I felt unusually optimistic. Alas, it was unwarranted.
The Indians had Jeremy Sowers on the mound, whom the Sox almost always beat (0-6 lifetime in seven starts). Sometimes it takes a while, but usually the third time through does the trick. After all, opponents are batting .466 against him that go-around.
That never materialized. The Sox scored two runs off Sowers, both in the third inning on Gordon Beckham’s double and Jim Thome’s single. That was it.
Later on, Chris Perez entered the game. He had a pretty impressive history of failure against the White Sox in his young Cleveland career, and it certainly looked promising when he walked Jermaine Dye to load the bases and started Jim Thome off with two out of the strike zone.
Problem was, the second one was called a strike, and Perez found his sea legs. He struck out Jim Thome, got Paul Konerko to pop out and A.J. Pierzynski to line out to second.
Of course, it would’ve been a tall order to bail out Buehrle, anyway. He didn’t pitch particularly well, and Kelly Shoppach punished him for two opposite-field homers.
Yet despite allowing six runs on 11 hits, because the Indians’ offense was so consistent, Buehrle was able to last 7 2/3 innings because he induced six double plays. He became the first AL pitcher to do that since Dick Drago in 1972.
He somehow achieved that feat despite Jayson Nix throwing away what should’ve been a double play ball in the first inning. The Indians ended up loading the bases with nobody out after Buehrle plunked Shin-Soo Choo, but he got Jhonny Peralta to ground into the first twin killing to limit the damage to one run.
Gordon Beckham booted a grounder, and, because bad things come in threes, Jayson Nix dropped a foul ball for his second error of the game.
Record: 56-54 | Box score | Play-by-play
