August 27: White Sox 9, Red Sox 5
Hats off to Jayson Nix, who changed the course of this game with one big swing.
The Sox had the bases loaded, nobody out and a 3-0 count off Junichi Tazawa, who only had one pitch and couldn’t even locate it. Mark Kotsay took strike one, then swung at ball four — and perhaps ball five — to hit a sac fly to left.
Alexei Ramirez followed with a routine fly to center on a 2-0 pitch, and it appeared Tazawa would be let off the hook despite having plenty of nothing.
Nix made Tazawa pay, hitting a towering fly on another 2-0 pitch that scraped the Green Monster. The hang time allowed both runners on base to score, giving the Sox a 3-0 lead. Scott Podsednik put the cherry on top with a single back through the box for a 4-0 lead.
More surprisingly, they doubled their lead in the third. A.J. Pierzynski and Paul Konerko led off with singles. Although Konerko should’ve had a double off the Monster, Carlos Quentin picked him up. He came up after Jim Thome’s sac fly and hit his 15th homer to stretch the lead to 7-0. Alexei Ramirez doubled and Jayson Nix singled — both with two outs — for an 8-0 lead.
The Sox ended their night of offense with one more two-out run. Paul Konerko picked up his extra base by scoring from first on a Jim Thome doubled.
It was pretty much smooth sailing after that. John Danks pitched six strong innings; the only glitch came in the form of back-to-back homers by J.D. Drew and Alex Gonzalez.
Nix prevented another run from scoring on Danks when, learning from his mistake in the first game, he threw home to get a runner at home instead of pursuing a rundown between first and second. Pierzynski placed the tag on Jacoby Ellsbury, who sprained his ankle against Pierzynski as he blocked the plate.
If there was one reason to be discouraged, a Red Sox shortstop had a better relief outing than the White Sox’s two highest-paid relievers. Nick Green walked a three batters, but didn’t allow a hit for a 0.00 ERA. Meanwhile, Octavio Dotel couldn’t finish a second inning due to control issues and double issues (David Ortiz and J.D. Drew hit consecutive wall-bangers), giving up two runs.
Then, one moment after Steve Stone laid down the adrenaline excuse, Bobby Jenks gave up a homer to Drew to lead off the ninth.
Record: 64-64 | Box score | Play-by-play
