State of the Sox 2009

October 3: White Sox 5, Tigers 1

If you weren’t convinced that Jim Leyland thought this game was a must-win, you had to be sold when he pulled his starter after 1 1/3 innings… when he allowed just one run.

Alfredo Figaro found himself in a jam in the second. The inning started with a titanic Carlos Quentin shot, and grew worse when he found the bases loaded and one out after a walk, a single, a double-steal and a Brent Lillibridge walk.

Then, he found himself out of the game. Leyland might’ve set the record for earliest LOOGY appearance when Fu-Te Ni relieved Figaro to face Scott Podsednik. It almost worked, but Podsednik’s grounder to second proved too hot for Placido Polanco to field cleanly. A fielder’s choice made it a 2-0 game, and it gradually slipped away from Detroit despite Leyland’s best overmanaging.

Just like Friday, it was steady as she goes for the Sox starter.  This time, it was Freddy Garcia, who baffled the Tigers with his assortment of junk. Miguel Cabrera looked particularly out of sorts, failing to hit a ball out of the infield and striking out with Garcia failing to crack 90.

To illustrate the contrast in fortunes, Alex Rios barely muscled the ball out of the infield — and ended up driving in the Sox’s final three runs.

One day after Carlos Guillen mis-slid and missed a lazy fly toward the line, Magglio Ordonez did the same. It gave Rios an RBI double. He then muscled a pop-up over Polanco’s head for a run-scoring single off Ryan Perry in the eighth, and gave the Sox an insurance run with a fly that dropped in front of a hard-charging Curtis Granderson in the ninth.

Cabrera did have a chance to make it interesting in the eighth beforehand.  Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth, the Tigers knocked Garcia out of the game with a double and a single, putting runners on the corners in the process. Ozzie Guillen called for Tony Pena, who allowed an RBI single to Polanco before getting Magglio Ordonez to line out to Alexei Ramirez.

Pena won the battle, getting Cabrera to ground into an easy 6-4-3 double play that dashed the Tigers’ hopes. Matt Thornton closed it out for the non-save, dropping the Tigers into a dead heat with the Twins leading into the final day of the season.

Two items of note:

*The Sox stole six bases in six attempts.

*Quentin homered, doubled, nearly homered, and was hit by two pitches.

Record: 79-82 | Box score | Play-by-play

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 30: White Sox 1, Indians 0 (Game 2)

Mark Buehrle suffered through a difficult second half, but he ended his season on a fine note.

Buehrle threw six efficient shutout innings, needing only 79 pitches for his 13th victory of the season. He didn’t allow a baserunner before he recorded two outs in an inning, and he didn’t walk a batter.

He frontloaded his start with tension. The Indians put runners on second and third after a single and double, but Matt LaPorta grounded out to second to end the inning.

That groundout started a run in which Buehrle retired 18 of his last 19 batters, with only Trevor Crowe reaching on an infield single.

Paul Konerko provided the only run off an excellent Justin Masterson, beating a single back up the middle to score Dewayne Wise in the fifth inning.  The Sox had stranded a runner on third with less than two outs on two occasions prior to Konerko’s knock.

Konerko then followed it up by stealing second, his first of the year. It was odd considering Konerko failed to score from second, setting up one of the aforementioned failures.

Masterson ended up striking out 12 Sox, a career-high. But it wasn’t enough, as Tony Pena served as a one-man bridge to Matt Thornton, who closed it out with a 1-2-3 inning.

Record: 77-82 | Box score | Play-by-play

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 25: White Sox 2, Tigers 0

Briefly:

*Jake Peavy survived a flurry of weak singles to throw seven scoreless innings, getting two double-play balls. He was late covering on a 3-6-1 double play, but made up for it by turning a 1-6-3 later on.

*Jermaine Dye made a great play on one of the only hard-hit balls of the night, crashing against the fence to take a double (or more) away from Curtis Granderson.

*Gordon Beckham broke up Eddie Bonine’s no-hitter and shutout with a two-run shot.  It came with two outs and after a Brandon Inge error, so both runs were unearned.

*Matt Thornton walked Carlos Guillen with two outs, but was able to record his first save since Bobby Jenks went down for the year.

Record: 74-80 | Box score | Play-by-play

September 20: Royals 2, White Sox 1

If Jermaine Dye ever had an occasion to break out of his slump with style, it was with the bases loaded against Joakim Soria in the eighth inning.

Soria loaded the bases with a walk to Alexei Ramirez, bringing Dye and his 4-for-35 slump to the plate.

It ended with a medium-range flyout to right. So much for redemption.

The game ended in equally disheartening fashion, with pinch-running Dewayne Wise gunned down at second on an unsuccessful stolen base attempt. You could see the strategy in it — Scott Podsednik isn’t likely to drive anybody in from first, and Gordon Beckham’s slumping pretty badly himself.

But that didn’t work either. Not much did against Robinson Tejeda and the Kansas City pitching staff today, outside of Scott Podsednik and A.J. Pierzynski. They combined for four of the team’s six hits, and Pierzynski drove in Podsednik (after Pods stole his 28th base) for the lone run of the game.

Carlos Quentin had a chance with the bases loaded following that series of events, but he faltered as well. The Sox stranded eight on the day.

It wasted a terrific effort by Freddy Garcia, who allowed a single run in the first (wild pitch) and third (RBI single) innings and nothing after. He finished his day by retiring the last nine he faced.

Record: 73-77 | Box score | Play-by-play

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 5: White Sox 5, Red Sox 1

Tim Wakefield wasn’t as sharp, and the White Sox hitters wisened up.  As a result, the Good Guys jumped on the knuckleball early, giving a halfway-perfect Gavin Floyd a nice early cushion en route to their four consecutive victory.

Scott Podsednik provided a positive omen when he led off with a single up through the middle — a nice change of pace after Sox hitters were way too pull-happy in their first outing against Wakefield.  He stole second, Jayson Nix (pinch-hitting for Gordon Beckham, who left early with a stiff back) walked, and A.J. Pierzynski tested Wakefield’s bad back with a bunt that at least moved the runners over.

Paul Konerko lined a single back through the middle to drive two runs in, and two batters later, Paul Konerko would score on Chris Getz’s flare for a quick 3-0 lead.

That was all Floyd needed.  He took a perfect game into the sixth inning before Nick Green spoiled it with a two-out single.  It appeared that he might have a Mark Buehrle performance in him thanks to some nice defense.  Mark Kotsay ran a ball down in deep right field, and Alexei Ramirez gloved a grounder up the middle and made a spinning throw to get Mike Lowell out at first.

Even though Green shattered that dream, it didn’t seem to bother Floyd too much.  He finished with a career-high 11 strikeouts, with only Jason Bay’s leadoff homer in the eighth getting on the board.

Ultimately, it was no harm done, because Paul Konerko answered in the bottom of the inning with his 25th homer, doinking it off the left-field foul pole to get the run back.

Mark Kotsay also homered off Wakefield, giving him two in two games against his former team.

Record: 68-69 | 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

August 19: White Sox 4, Royals 2

Jose Contreras’ day began with a nine-pitch at-bat against David DeJesus; an ominous beginning for a guy who has battled inefficiency issues for the past couple of months.

That was one fewer pitch than Contreras needed to finish the entire seventh. First impressions can be misleading.

Contreras threw a quality start for only the second time in his last seven outings, limiting the damage to a DeJesus solo homer on a 3-2 fastball in the fourth inning.

That homer kicked off the only really laborious inning for Contreras. He needed 27 pitches to get through the frame, using a dozen to strike out Willie Bloomquist. The Royals couldn’t break him. Instead, the high-sock-sporting Contreras converted that battle into positive momentum — he finishes his day retiring 12 of his last 13 batters. DeJesus, of course, drew the lone walk.

He outdueled Zack Greinke in the process. The Sox didn’t get to Greinke often, but they made their six hits count.

In this case, first impressions weren’t misleading. Scott Podsednik started the bottom of the first with a double, and he would score three batters later on Paul Konerko’s rattler into the left-field corner.

Gordon Beckham and Alexis Rios then found a couple of hanging breaking balls to their liking for solo shots. Rios turned on a slider for his first homer in a White Sox uniform.

The Sox didn’t record a non-extra-base hit until the eighth inning, when Paul Konerko(!) scored an infield single by grounding one far enough away from the rangeless Yuniesky Betancourt.

Record: 62-59 | Box score | Play-by-play

August 5: White Sox 6, Angels 2

This type of game is a White Sox tradition — a strong start bolstered by a couple of big homers.  It’s the simple formula that works.

Gavin Floyd threw eight terrific innings and actually got a win to show for it. Jim Thome shouldered the load for the offense, hitting a pair of opposite-field homers.  His second was a three-run shot that broke open the game.

Thome came to the plate with runners on first and third and nobody out. Mike Scioscia pulled Sean O’Sullivan in favor of left-hander Darren Oliver.  The Gentleman Masher punished Scioscia for that decision, blasting his second opposite-field shot of the night to give the Sox a 5-2 lead.

Gavin Floyd made sure the lead stood up, even though his defense made more mistakes than Floyd did:

*Jermaine Dye let an inning-ending Vladimir Guerrero line drive skim off his mitt. It’s unclear whether he lost it in the lights, but either way, it allowed Bobby Abreu to score from first. Guerrero made it to third on the error, but Floyd stranded him there by getting Juan Rivera to pop out.

*Jayson Nix made an inexplicably errant throw on a grounder to short, allowing Rivera to reach and put runners on first and second with nobody out. Floyd erased the mistake with a 4-6-3 double play.

*A.J. Pierzynski once again let a third strike get past him. A down-and-in (but catchable) curve made its way back to the screen, and Morales made it to first safely. Floyd erased the mistake with a 4-6-3 double play.

*Paul Konerko took his eye off a Chone Figgins grounder — perhaps in an effort to turn a 3-6-3 double play. He ended up deflecting it to Chris Getz, who got it back to Konerko in time, but Paul Shrieber called him safe. Perhaps it was a makeup call, as Konerko got credit for tagging out a diving Erick Aybar when the replay showed he missed.

Floyd had to do a little more work to pitch around the third error of the game, but he got the job done. Maicer Izturis tapped weakly in front of the plate to freeze Gary Matthews Jr. at third, and Floyd struck out Abreu with a beautiful inside-half fastball.

Floyd departed after allowing a pair of singles to start the ninth, and one would come around to score on a sac fly.  It wouldn’t spoil his night, though, one in which he struck out six batters and induced three double plays.

At least Nix and Konerko atoned for their errors.  Nix picked up Getz — who struck out on a bogus called third strike — by scoring a runner on third with a flare to right field.  Konerko hit his 21st homer off Brian Fuentes in the ninth inning, putting the game outside of a slam.

Record: 56-52 | Box score | Play-by-play