State of the Sox 2009

October 2: White Sox 8, Tigers 0

Jake Peavy was good.  The Tigers were really, really bad.

Peavy threw eight incredibly easy innings, allowing just two hits and two runs while striking out five as he recorded his third win in as many starts in a White Sox uniform.

And he got all the runs he needed when Scott Podsednik led off the game with a massive homer.  Seriously, it was a no-doubt blast just inside the right-field foul pole off Edwin Jackson.

From there on out, the Sox tacked on.  They labored, but Detroit was happy to help out.

Jermaine Dye “doubled” in a run in the fourth when Carlos Guillen went to make a sliding catch on a ball he could’ve caught standing.  As it turned out, he hit the ground well before the ball, and it ended up dropping between his legs for a 2-0 lead.

Dye then walked in a run in the sixth, Jackson’s third walk in four batters to start the inning (with some help from Tim Tschida’s shapeshifting strike zone). Mark Kotsay chased him from the game with a double, and the Sox ended up crossing the plate five times for the game’s final score.

Peavy cruised all the while, retiring 19 of 20 batters at one point — and that batter reached on an Alexei Ramirez error.  But Ramirez made up for it with a brilliant play on a sinking one-hopper off the bat of Ramon Santiago. Ramirez gloved it on the shortstop while going down to one knee and his back facing home, then uncoiled and let loose a laser to get Santiago by a half step.

Peavy only lost composure once — on a weird jump balk that allowed Magglio Ordonez to advance to second following the Ramirez error.  As the final score would tell you, it didn’t hurt.

Record: 78-82 | Box score | Play-by-play

September 27: White Sox 8, Tigers 4

Note: K8T wrote this recap:

It took six innings, but the Sox finally showed up. A three-run sixth inning and a four-run eighth inning solidified a solid offensive showing including Carlos Quentin’s 3-run dinger, and gave Daniel Hudson his first big-league win.

Hudson gave up a home run to Curtis Granderson on the second pitch of the game and didn’t give up another run until the top of the sixth when he walked three batters. Give the assist to the White Sox offense though, as the bats were hot today.

In addition to the his home run, Quentin also had a double. Scott Podsednik had an RBI triple (yes, a triple) and a run scored. Gordon Beckham had an RBI double and single with two runs scored. Mark Kotsay and Alex Rios both had hits and runs scored, while Alexei Ramirez had a hit and two runs scored.

Jermaine Dye did have an RBI single, and received the standing ovation that so many fans had hoped for.

Also, give an assist to the Sox defense. Podsednik made a diving catch in center field, and Aubrey Huff was so far off second that Podsednik could get up, start running to second and throw off the wrong foot in time for the double play.

Later in the game, Alex Rios ran down a liner in the right field that could’ve easily been a JD triple.

All in all, it was a very fitting ending for the home season, even if it meant nothing in the end.

Record: 75-81 | Box score | Play-by-play

September 15: White Sox 6, Mariners 3

This game had the hallmarks of a team White Sox fans have seldom seen this year.

The offense rallied from an early 3-0 hole, finally supporting a quality start, thanks to some timely hitting. And they held it thanks to some excellent middle relief work.

A.J. Pierzynski, who hasn’t done much with runners in scoring position, changed the game with his best plate appearance of the year.

Pierzynski came to the plate to face Mark Lowe with runners on second and third and two outs. Lowe got a 2-2 count on him, and thus began the battle. Three fouls, a ball and a foul later, Pierzynski finally found one he could square up. He slashed one to left, and that would be good enough to score both runs as Bill Hall airmailed the throw.

The throwing error allowed Pierzynski to reach second, and Paul Konerko cashed him in with his second double of the night, a beautiful liner to the right-center gap.

Ozzie Guillen called on a combination of Octavio Dotel and Matt Thornton to take care of the seventh and eighth, and they teamed up to work around an error (see below) with maybe the most beautiful pair of outs the bullpen has provided all year.

Dotel had runners on second and third with one out and Jose Lopez at the plate, and Dotel got ahead 0-2.  He tried one slider that Lopez fouled off, and then came back with fastballs. Lopez kept fouling them off, but eventually Dotel got one Lopez kept in play, and it ended up in Mark Kotsay’s mitt on the foul side of first base.

Guillen then called on Thornton to face Griffey, and he simply blew him away. Two fastballs looking, one fastball swinging, thank you very much. Thornton retired all four men he faced.

The Sox added an insurance run in the ninth. After a hit-and-run that Alexei Ramirez executed to get Chris Getz to third, Getz came around to score on a wild pitch.

The run came in handy, as Bobby Jenks allowed the tying run to come to the plate, even with a three-run lead. He did get screwed when Angel Hernandez didn’t believe that Jenks won a footrace with Ichiro Suzuki for what should’ve been the third out, but after a single, he struck out Lopez with a ball in the dirt to end the game.

Freddy Garcia ended up getting the win, one he deserved after shaking off a shaky start. He allowed all three runs over his first three innings of work. The first came on a solo shot by Ken Griffey Jr., right after he hooked one home-run diestance ball just foul. It was almost like Garcia was helping General Soreness hit No. 626.

Garcia then gave up a two-out double and single to fall behind 2-0 after two, and an RBI groundout after a double steal to stretch it to 3-0 after three.  He did strand Franklin Gutierrez on second, though, and settled down after that.

The offense then began to chip away. Pierzynski scored the first run after leading off the fourth with a single.  He moved up on a Paul Konerko walk and a passed ball/wild pitch, and Mark Kotsay drove them both in with a double. Kotsay advanced to third on a deep Jermaine Dye fly, but he’d be stranded there after Carlos Quentin lined out to third and Chris Getz grounded out.

Dye failed to score a runner from third with less than two outs in the fifth, striking out on three pitches. That’s what made Pierzynski’s sixth-inning at-bat such a big one.

Despite the satisfaction from this comeback, a few indicators of the same ol’ Sox remained:

*A ball fell between Carlos Quentin and Alexei Ramirez for a non-error error, putting the pressure on Octavio Dotel. It should’ve been Quentin’s ball, but Ramirez sent mixed signals with his pursuit.

*Scott Podsednik had another problem with the wall on a fly to deep right, which ended up as a Mike Carp triple. Garcia pitched around it.

*Pierzynski ran into yet another out on an unsuccessful attempt to stretch a single into a double.

On the other hand, Gordon Beckham made two beautiful stabs to his right, and defensive replacement Alex Rios made a deep fly over his head look like a piece of cake.

Record: 72-73 | 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

September 3: White Sox 5, Cubs 0

Sox fans often tell themselves in tough times, “At least we’re not the Cubs.”

After today’s victory, Sox players might be telling themselves the same thing.  They found one team that could make costlier mistakes than they do.

And the Sox started this one out as sloppy as it gets.

Scott Podsednik led off with a double that should’ve been a triple — except it rolled into the ivy. He then got caught up between second and third thanks to terrible baserunning. He was off on contact, and would’ve made it to third since Ryan Dempster didn’t field Gordon Beckham’s chopper cleanly.

For some reason, Pods slowed to a trot while Dempster lunged after the ball. He got hung up between second and third, where he was tagged out by Aramis Ramirez.

Beckham compounded the error by making one of his own. He got caught between first and second, where he was tagged out for the 1-5-3-6 double play.  Oy.

But leave it to the Cubs to help them out. In the second inning, Chris Getz hit a two-out single. Jake Fox decided not to catch a pickoff throw, giving Getz second on the error. He’d score on an Alexei Ramirez single for a 1-0 lead.

…and Ramirez would get thrown out at second on a stolen base attempt, in which he apparently stopped running halfway.

Carlos Torres remained unshakable, taking advantage of the wind blowing in and getting a lot of medium-to-deep flyouts.  He pitched around trouble in the fourth, striking out Alfonso Soriano with runners on the corners and one out before getting Jeff Baker to ground out to second.

He had retired eight in a row before Jake Fox’s double leading off the seventh. After striking out Soriano (again), Baker singled to right. Fox headed for home, and Dewayne Wise made him pay. His throw made it home on the fly, easy enough for A.J. Pierzynski to catch, and giving him time to diving across the plate and tag the diving Fox.

Ozzie Guillen visited Torres after the second out and left him in. Torres responded by striking out Koyie Hill for his seventh scoreless inning.

Wise’s throw and Torres’ toughness may have broken the Cubs. Either that, or it was Soriano.

After Beckham led off with a single, A.J. Pierzynski hit a lazy flyball toward the left field line. Soriano overran it, slipped, and watched the ball bound past him into the corner for a run-scoring, three-base error. Paul Konerko followed with a single for a 3-0 lead, and the game was never in doubt afterward.

Two more misplays led to two more Sox runs in the ninth. Jake Fox thought about going home on Pierzynski’s chopper, but realizing he had no chance at Podsednik, he turned to first — and Jeff Baker wasn’t covering.

Baker then made another miscue when he hung Ryan Theriot out to dry on what should’ve been a 4-6-3. Pierzynski broke up the double play as Baker’s toss put Theriot right in the path of his slide, and his return throw wasn’t in time. That extended the inning for Carlos Quentin, who put a grounder just far enough away from Theriot for another RBI infield single.

Along with victory No. 1 for Torres, this game featured another first — Tyler Flowers’ big-league debut. His first plate appearance ended with a pop-out to first, but it’s a start.

Record: 66-69 | Box score | Play-by-play