August 22: White Sox 4, Orioles 1
How John Danks escaped this game having allowed just one run over 6 2/3 innings is hard to fathom.
With just one out in the second inning, he already had five walks under his belt. The out itself was a gift — Ty Wigginton drew the first walk, but tried stealing for no apparent reason. A.J. Pierzynski threw him out at second easily, so easily that Wigginton popped up and jogged back to the dugout without reaching the base.
Danks reloaded the bases with a pair of walks sandwiching a Carlos Quentin error (he couldn’t come up with a sliding catch). He appeared to have problems with his bad index finger, and Ozzie Guillen called for D.J. Carrasco to warm up in the dugout.
Did I mention Nick Markakis was at the plate? Against the Sox, Markakis came in owning a .372 average, which shot up to .429 with runners in scoring position. Markakis pushed him to a full count, which made a walk or base hit seem even more imminent.
But Danks rallied back with two consecutive strikes, with Markakis swinging at perfectly placed cutter knee high and on the outisde corner for the second out. Danks then threw two more strikes to Nolan Reimold, who popped up to Jayson Nix for the third out.
Danks settled down after that, and the Sox gave him a cushion beyond Carlos Quentin’s no-doubt, second-inning solo shot.
They loaded the bases off David Hernandez (a rookie pitcher they’d never seen before) on a Jim Thome walk, a Quentin HBP and the first of two Pierzynski singles that wouldn’t score a runner in “scoring position.” They actually scored two runs, though it could’ve been disastrous.
Alexei Ramirez followed with a single in front of Markakis in right. Had Markakis been aware that Thome thought he had a chance of catching it, he probably would’ve been able to get a force at home. Instead, he threw late to second, allowing Thome to score. Mark Kotsay’s ensuing sac fly gave the Sox a 3-0 lead.
They added a run in the fifth when Jermaine Dye scored on a wild pitch, but even that inning had its problems on the bases. Thome’s single, which got Dye to third, actually was a line drive to the wall in left-center. Thome couldn’t make it to second.
That came into play, because on the wild pitch, Thome only got to second. Which meant that, on Pierynski’s single, Thome only got to third. He wouldn’t score.
Two times not enough for you? Well, Thome’s speed — or yet another poor baserunning decision buy Pierzynski — prevented another run from scoring in the seventh.
With Thome standing on second and two outs, Cla Meredith walked Pierzynski intentionally to bring Ramirez to the plate. Ramirez made the move blow up in Dave Trembley’s face, because he took Ramirez off the wall in left…
…except, Pierzynski tried going from first to third, and was thrown out on a great throw from Reimold — before Thome crossed the plate. Hawk Harrelson blamed Thome for being too slow, but Pierzynski had the plate in front of him the whole time.
That run almost came into play, because Bobby Jenks ended up bringing the tying run to the plate with one out in the ninth after a bloop single and a walk. Jenks came back by striking out Felix Pie and getting Adam Jones to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the game.
More ugliness:
*Cesar Izturis entered the game with a .293 OBP. Danks walked him once, and Matt Thornton hit him with a pitch after throwing a wild pitch in the same at-bat. His low-and-in slider escaped Pierzynski, who didn’t appear to make a great effort to his left.
*Jermaine Dye played a pop-up into a triple when he short-armed a diving attempt in shallow right.
Record: 63-60 | Box score | Play-by-play
