August 25: Red Sox 6, White Sox 3
The Red Sox desperately wanted to give this game away. The White Sox wouldn’t let them.
Boston tried three times to let the White Sox have this one, since Pale Hose were so kind to wrap up more than a half-dozen gift runs the same before.
Trailing 2-1 and Paul Konerko on thirdwith one out in the seventh, Alex Rios hit a fly to medium range right. Paul Konerko bluffed going home, but it baffles the mind that he didn’t commit fully. Drew caught the ball flat-footed, and his throw ended up well on the first base side of the plate.
But they pardoned Konerko (or Jeff Cox) with a strikeout of all things. Alexei Ramirez swung at a curve in the dirt, but it hit the front of the plate and skipped over Jason Varitek. Konerko scored, and Ramirez reached first, and Jermaine Dye, who was on second, moved up to third. He would score when Jayson Nix’s line drive didn’t stick in Mike Lowell’s mitt, and the White Sox led 3-2.
The Sox let the Red Sox tie it in the bottom of the frame. Freddy Garcia, who pitched so well, gave up a one-out double to Jason Varitek. Terry Francona called for Victor Martinez, and Ozzie Guillen, as he so often did when Martinez was on the Indians, brought in Matt Thornton to make Martinez hit from the right side of the plate.
Martinez, as he so often did when he was on the Indians, lined a single to left on the first pitch to tie the game.
The ever-charitable Red Sox weren’t dismayed. In the top of the eight, Carlos Quentin hit a pop-up over the mound. Hideki Okajima couldn’t make an over-the-shoulder catch, and Quentin reach on the error.
He advanced to second in stranger fashion. Okajima wasn’t looking at Martinez after his first pitch to Konerko, and Martinez’s throw back to the mound bounced into center field. Quentin moved to second, and then went to third on Konerko’s single to right.
Quentin would stay there. Jermaine Dye popped out to short, A.J. Pierzynski struck out, and Rios flew out to center on a high 2-0 pitch to end the threat.
By that time, the Red Sox just decided to win it themselves. Then again, with Scott Linebrink on the mound, it might’ve been unavoidable.
Linebrink actually bailed out Thornton by getting Kevin Youkilis to ground out to second with runners on second and third to end the seventh, and started the eighth by getting David Ortiz to fly out. As was the case against Kansas City, he struggled to record a third out.
Jason Bay, who couldn’t figure out Garcia’s off-speed stuff, sat on a Linebrink curve and sent it over the Monster for a 4-3 lead, and they’d add two more runs with two outs for the final margin.
Record: 63-63 | Box score | Play-by-play
