State of the Sox 2009

September 17: Mariners 4, White Sox 3 (14 innings)

Bobby Jenks had never given up two homers in an outing before, so, for the second consecutive game, now you’ve seen something you’ve never seen before.

Of course, this wasn’t the “hey, neat,” kind of novelty. It was another punch in the nuts in a season chock full of them.

Jenks squatted over a great John Danks start and befouled it by giving up a pair of solo shots in the ninth inning.  Jose Lopez led off by taking a 1-0 fastball over the Sox bullpen in left field, and after a pair of groundouts, Bill Hall took a 1-1 fastball to the same place. The only difference was that Hall used a shorter swing.

After Mariners pitching threw a shutout — the Sox scored their third and final run in the fifth inning — Ozzie Guillen decided to end it by bringing in Scott Linebrink.

Linebrink got the job done. After a leadoff out, Linebrink gave up a single to Ryan Langerhans, then hit Kenji Johjima on the elbow with a fastball that was supposed to be on the other side of the plate. That gave Ichiro a golden opportunity to come through, and he did just that with a single to right-center to end it. So much for the nice job done by Matt Thornton, Tony Pena, Randy Williams and Octavio Dotel, who combined to throw four scoreless innings in an attempt to get Jenks off the hook.

But Danks was the real victim. He allowed only four hits and two walks over eight efficient innings, and Adrian Beltre’s solo shot in the seventh inning constituted the only real damage.

Danks grew stronger as the game grew longer. He started off each of the first two innings with leadoff walks but worked around them, and ended up retiring 13 of 14 at one point.

Alexei Ramirez also made a tremendous play on Adam Moore, snaring a one-hop rocket behind him, spinning and making a throw to first to prevent the leadoff hitter from reaching in the third.

Danks helped himself out with his glove in the eighth. After Matt Tuiasosopo led off with a double, Danks kept him there by making a great snab on an Ichiro chopper, which prevent Tuiaososopo from advancing. He never got within 90 feet of home.

And while the Sox offense eventually settled into its snooze-inducing ways, they appeared to get to Brandon Morrow just enough to help Danks toward his 13th win.

Scott Podsednik drew a walk to start the game, then went to third on Gordon Beckham’s single and scored on A.J. Pierzynski’s sac fly. Simple enough.

In the third, Paul Konerko doubled off the top of the left field wall with one out. He would come around to score on Mark Kotsay’s single. Kotsay was thrown out at second assuming the throw wouldn’t be cut off — or maybe trying to prevent the throw from going home — but it gave the Sox a 2-0 lead.

They added one more in the fifth. Gordon Beckham led off with a walk, moved to second on Pierzynski’s groundout to second, and Mark Kotsay bounced one over Jose Lopez’s mitt at first for a 3-0 lead. Not pretty, but certainly effective.

The Sox lumber went into slumber afterward. They combined to go just 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position, and Jermaine Dye and Alex Rios went 0-for-6 apiece.

Another way to show how bad it was: Chris Getz drew four walks, stole his 25th base… and never scored.

Record: 72-75 | Box score | Play-by-play

September 12: White Sox 4, Angels 3 (10 innings)

If the White Sox can’t make wins look easy anymore, then we’re all screwed.

They held a 3-0 lead entering the eighth with their best relievers — Matt Thornton and Bobby Jenks — tanned, rested and ready. They finished the game in the 10th, clinging to a one-run lead with Tony Pena, of all people, attempting to rack up the save.

Thornton started the ruination of a perfectly good win opportunity for John Danks by allowing four straight singles — good for two runs — in the eighth inning. He could only retire one batter, and needed Jenks to clean up his mess.  Jenks did so in one pitch, getting Juan Rivera to ground into a double play immediately.

Then Jenks ran into his own problem, giving up a nine-pitch leadoff walk to Gary Matthews. He went to third on Kendry Morales’ single and scored on Maicer Izturis’ sac fly. Just like that, the game was tied.

Thank goodness for Scott Podsednik.

Podsednik led off the top of the 10th with a double to the right-center gap off Brian Fuentes. Gordon Beckham singled him to third, but A.J. Pierzynski couldn’t score him, flying out to shallow center and keeping Podsednik at third.

Kevin Jepsen came in to face pinch-hitting Paul Konerko, and it looked like Pods would be stranded at third when Jepsen got ahead 0-2.  But he bounced a slider that skipped past Mike Napoli, and Podsednik came around to score the winning run.

Of course, the Sox wouldn’t end it without drama. Randy Williams got ahead on Bobby Abreu 1-2, then walked him without challenging him. Reggie Willits bunted him over (thank you), and Ozzie Guillen called for Pena. Pena got Torii Hunter to ground out, but it looked like Oakland all over again when Rivera bounced a single back through the middle.

This one was hit a little slower than the one Kurt Suzuki knocked through for the game-tying run on Wednesday, and a diving Alexei Ramirez kept it in the infield. That saved the game, because Pena got Napoli to ground into a 4-3 to end it for his first save in a Sox uniform.

The game was closer than it should’ve been after the Sox built an early 3-0 lead through three innings. Gordon Beckham, the second batter of the game, took Ervin Santana deep for a solo shot over the left-center wall. In the third, Podsednik added one of his own — the hard way.

He hit a deep fly to right field, and sent Bobby Abreu up against the wall. Much like what happened to Pods in Oakland a couple years ago, the ball hit the wall, and then Abreu’s head on the way down. It ricocheted away from Abreu toward center, and with Hunter not backing up, Pods circled the bases for the first Sox inside-the-park homer since Joe Borchard’s.

John Danks, meanwhile, kept the Angels down despite pitch count issue. It’s a minor miracle that he got through six considering he had thrown 60something pitches through three. He didn’t have a traditional 1-2-3 inning, but he did benefit from two double plays. One was A.J. Pierzynski’s second strike-him-out-throw-him-out this week.

Unfortunately, the Sox failed to score a run in the sixth when, with runners on the corners and one out, Chris Getz hit a fly to shallow right. It wasn’t deep enough for Ramirez to score on it, but they tried anyway, and Ramirez was out by 15 feet.

Record: 71-72 | Box score | Play-by-play