blowout loss

September 26: Tigers 12, White Sox 5

Posted by Jim Margalus on September 26th, 2009 | 0 comments

Briefly:

*The Sox led this one 5-0 through four, thanks in large part to a solo homer by Alex Rios, and a three-run shot by Carlos Quentin.

*The Tigers finally got to Freddy Garcia for one run in the fifth, two in the sixth, and two more in the seventh. Tony Pena came in and allowed two more singles, making for six in the seventh inning overall.

*Scott Linebrink was hammered in the eighth, giving up four straight two-out hits.

Record: 74-81 | Box score | Play-by-play

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September 21: Twins 7, White Sox 0

Posted by Jim Margalus on September 21st, 2009 | 0 comments

Orlando Cabrera hit a flare to short right, down the line. A diving Jermaine Dye didn’t get there. Nor did he stop it. It rolled away slowly behind him for a JD triple.

He then scored on an A.J. Pierzynski passed ball — on a fastball over the plate. One batter after Daniel Hudson prevented Joe Mauer from driving him in.

That was how the game started, and that was how it ended. The Twins scored their first four runs with heavy assistance from the Sox, and the offense showed nothing en route to its 13th shutout.

Hudson ran into control problems in the second, walking three batters — including two with two outs, leading to the Twins’ second run. They’d score their third thanks to a leadoff throwing error by Hudson on a Cabrera bunt.

All in all, Hudson pitched pretty well for his first major-league start, and I’ll write plenty more about it later.

Otherwise… Mark Kotsay had a nice game, with two singles and a nice diving play along the first base line. But Kotsay failed to score A.J. Pierzynski from third with less than two outs, so even he was tainted.

Record; 73-78 | Box score | Play-by-play

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September 8: Athletics 11, White Sox 3

Posted by Jim Margalus on September 8th, 2009 | 0 comments

Coming off a brilliant start against the Cubs, Carlos Torres looked like a batting practice pitcher against the A’s.

That’s no exaggeration. Torres lasted just two-thirds of an inning, allowing five runs on five hits in the worst start of the season. He threw about six gopher balls, and was fortunate – the A’s only happened to convert on two of them. Three, if you count a bullet sac fly to right by Kurt Suzuki.

Ozzie Guillen had D.J. Carrasco warming before the first run was scored, but by the time Carrasco was warm, it was too late. Jack Cust hit a three-run shot, and Mark Ellis added a solo shot as well.

Making a bad night worse:

  • Carrasco was ineffective, giving up six more hits and three earned runs himself over 3 1/3 innings.
  • Brett Tomko both picked up the “W” and got his shot at A.J. Pierzynski without retribution (unless you want to count Kotsay’s two-run shot as adequate revenge).
  • When the Sox had something going — runners on second and third, nobody out — Jayson Nix was doubled off second when he inexplicably took off on Alexei Ramirez’s soft liner.
  • Daniel Hudson got his second shot and was tagged with two runs — one helped by an Ramirez error (missed a perfect throw from Pierzynski on a steal attempt), another allowed by Randy Williams.
  • Tyler Flowers had one at-bat and struck out.

At least  Jhonny Nunez tossed a scoreless inning.

Record: 69-71 | Box score | Play-by-play

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