August 24: Red Sox 12, White Sox 8

Posted by Jim Margalus on August 24th, 2009 | 1 comment

I wonder if Jayson Nix actually knew who was starting for the White Sox tonight.

You’d think that, if he did, he wouldn’t have let the Red Sox score a run for no good reason in the second.

After the White Sox jumped ahead 2-0, the Red Sox had runners on the corners and two outs against Jose Contreras. J.D. Drew took off for second, and A.J. Pierzynski threw down to Nix. Drew stopped, voluntarily getting himself into a rundown to give Jason Bay a run to score.

Nix let it happen, not even looking home before tagging Drew to end the inning.

The Sox still led 2-1, and a Gordon Beckham homer in the top of the third made it a 4-1 game. But a Contreras collapse was coming, and it was the worst I’d ever seen.

He had runners on second and third, two outs, and an 0-2 count on Kevin Youkilis. He tried to get him with a forkball, but instead hit him with a forkball, loading the bases.

Up came David Ortiz, who worked the count to 3-0, and just as easily as he put Contreras on the hook, he appeared to let him off by dribbling a 3-0 fastball up the first base line. But Contreras, who ruptured his ACL on a grounder to the right side against Boston roughly one year ago, had another misadventure. This one might’ve hurt worse.

Contreras had plenty of time to pick up the roller and tag Ortiz, who was at no risk of outrunning Contreras to the bag. But Contreras took his eye off the ball, swatted it away from himself, and then fell to the ground in a futile attempt to pick it up while Ortiz jogged around him to score.

He wouldn’t record another out. He walked in a run, and then after a wild pitch (on a poor A.J. Pierzynski effort) allowed a run to score, Contreras ended his night by serving up a three-run shot to Mike Lowell.  Six two-out runs gave the Red Sox a 7-4 lead.

The Sox offense never called it quits. Hitters remained patient throughout this three-hour, 42-minute game, and as a result, Red Sox pitchers only threw six fewer pitches on the evening (176) than their counterparts (182).

Unfortunately, the White Sox bullpen had its own issues.

Paul Konerko picked up Jermaine Dye — who struck out with runners on the corners and one out in the fifth — by sending a three-run homer over the Monster to cut the lead to 9-7, making up for D.J. Carrasco’s bad fourth inning.

The White Sox threatened again in the seventh, when two walks and an HBP loaded the bases for Carlos Quentin. Quentin fouled off some high-90s heat from Daniel Bard, but his attempt to go the opposite way died in Drew’s glove on the right field warning track.

Octavio Dotel then put the game out of reach by allowing more three more two-out runs to score, giving up a homer, double, a triple and another double in quick order.

Notes:

  • Randy Williams got the job done, striking out David Ortiz with the bases loaded to keep it a 9-7 game.
  • A.J. Pierzynski had three hits, Paul Konerko reached base four times, and Scott Podsednik reached three times, stole a base and induced an errant pickoff throw.
  • Nix committed an error to go with his brain fart.

Record: 63-62 | Box score | Play-by-play

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Comments

  1. On August 25, 2009 saltydog says:

    One other note on that particular play: the replays showed that Ortiz slowed up about half-way down the line. He wasn’t running hard (not that I know what that would look like), but picked it up AFTER Contreras made his futile stab at the ball. Barf.

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