August 8: White Sox 8, Indians 5
For the first four innings, this game appeared to largely be a carbon copy of Friday night.
Sure, the Sox fell into a hole because of Carlos Torres’ control problems, not Mark Buehrle’s hittability. Torres should’ve been worse off, actually. He loaded the bases in the first with three consecutive one-out walks, but struck out Travis Hafner and Chris Giminez to escape the inning unscathed.
Eventually, missing the strike zone would come back to bite him. Shin-Soo Choo walked with one out in the third and scored on Jhonny Peralta’s double (oddly enough, an 0-2 pitch that Torres didn’t miss enough with). A good relay may have gotten Choo at home, but Carlos Quentin’s throw went between Alexei Ramirez’s wickets.
Torres departed with one out in the fourth. He walked the first two batters of the inning before a sac bunt, giving him six walks over 3 1/3 innings. Both runs would come around to score on a pair of grounders, and the Sox were down 4-1.
Fortunately, Justin Masterson, acquired from Boston in the Victor Martinez deal, hadn’t yet started this season. He brushed off an A.J. Pierzynski RBI single in the first and shut down the Sox over the next three innings (with Paul Konerko failing to score a runner from third with less than two outs in the third).
Eric Wedge pulled him after four innings and 61 pitches, and the Indians bullpen did its thing.
*Tomo Ohka, who couldn’t crack the Sox pitching staff last year as he sat in Charlotte, hit Gordon Beckham before allowing a massive blast that fell just short of the fan deck in center to cut the lead to 5-3. He left after allowing a pair of singles and a Quentin double that scored both runners.
*Jess Todd gave up a leadoff double to Dewayne Wise in the sixth, who then advanced to third on Scott Podsednik’s productive out and came home on Beckham’s sac fly.
*Rafael Perez gave up a run himself, due mostly to his defense. A.J. Pierzynski hit a soft grounder to short, and Asdrubal Cabrera tried starting a double play. It developed so slowly that Konerko was able to reach second base and take out Luis Valbuena on the pivot. His throw sailed on him and ended up in the dugout. Pierzynski was awarded second and came around to score on Chris Getz’s single.
(Getz cost the Sox a run, potentially, when he was thrown out at second trying to take advantage of the throw home. The Sox would’ve had another runner on third with less than two outs had he stayed put.)
*Jensen Lewis hit Scott Podsednik (the third HBP of the game). Beckham was called for interference on an otherwise good bunt, because Lewis’ throw hit him and he was on the wrong side of the baseline, but Podsednik still came around to score when a Konerko grounder went under Peralta’s mitt for the E-5.
Meanwhile, the Sox bullpen preserved the lead, with D.J. Carrasco earning a well-deserved win for his 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Matt Thornton and Bobby Jenks (first game back from a kidney stone) closed it out.
All in all, Sox pitchers combined to strike out 15 Indians. They also benefited from errorless Sox ball (aside from the relay throw), with Torres even benefiting from the rare strike-him-out-throw-him-out courtesy of Pierzynski in the second inning.
Record: 57-54 | Box score | Play-by-play
