State of the Sox 2009

September 28: White Sox 6, Indians 1

From the lackluster lineups to the lack of an upper deck, this game had all the makings of a Triple-A affair.

John Danks dominated accordingly, throwing his first major-league complete game while posting the best game score of his career.  The previous high: You guessed it, Game 163.

His least-favorite inning was the only thing that bit him. With a 2-0 count on Shin-Shoo Choo, Danks grooved a fastball on the inside half, and Choo Choo-Choo-Chose to knock it into the right-field seats to cut the lead to 3-1.

Otherwise, Danks’ night was almost as easy at it gets. He allowed just three hits and a walk while striking out seven. He pitched around the walk by inducing a double play, and he did the same after a Brent Lillibridge error in the seventh.

The offense?  Yeah, that looked a little more bush-league.

The Sox scored three off Aaron Laffey despite their best efforts after loading the bases with singles by Alex Rios, Josh Fields and Tyler Flowers with one out.

Jayson Nix struck out looking — which would turn out to be his first of two backwards K’s with the sacks packed — and Laffey just needed to get past Lillibridge and his zero RBI to escape the inning unscathed.  Lillibridge hit a 60-foot chopper to third, but Jhonny Peralta couldn’t handle it cleanly. Rios scored, Lillibridge was given an infield single, and thus he drove in his first run of the season.

Dewayne Wise was then clipped on the jersey on his first pitch for a 2-0 lead, and he would beat Asdrubal Cabrera to second on a grounder up the middle to score a third run.

The Sox wouldn’t score again until the ninth inning, and they did so with a little more authority off  Jensen Lewis, who made the mistake of walking Lillibridge to start things off.

Wise got him to third on a hit-and-run single, and Gordon Beckham doubled them both in with a laser off the base of the wall in left. Beckham would score on Paul Konerko’s single, although it took a wild throw home to accomplish that.

Record: 75-81 | 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