State of the Sox 2010

Sept. 1: White Sox 6, Indians 4

For the second straight game, Manny Ramirez had the best view of a teammate hitting a game-winning three-run homer. On Tuesday, it was A.J. Pierzynski. Today, it was Paul Konerko.

The Sox, who were sluggish all day off rookie Carlos Carrasco and sloppy on defense, too, exploded for four runs in the eighth inning en route to a much-needed sweep against Cleveland.

Carrasco had limited the damage to an Alex Rios solo shot through the first seven innings, but gave up another one to Alexei Ramirez with one out in the eighth. A Juan Pierre walk ended Carrasco’s day.

LOOGY Rafael Perez got pinch-hitting Carlos Quentin to fly out, but Manny Acta’s third pitcher of the inning, Justin Germano, walked Rios to set the stage for Konerko. On a 1-1 pitch with Ramirez on deck, Konerko uncoiled on an inside slider and sent it onto the left-field concrete to give the Sox a 5-4 lead.

The Sox added an insurance run in the eighth with good bunting (Ramon Castro bunted runners to second and third with nobody out; earlier in the game, Guillen called for a bunt with Juan Pierre on second, nobody out, and the Sox down three) and an Alexei Ramirez sac fly. That run came in handy when Chris Sale, closing for the first time, encountered some control issues.

He struck out Jason Donald, but walked Chris Gimenez and Michael Brantley. Don Cooper visited the mound, and the result was a tailor-made chopper to Mark Teahen, who stepped on first for what should have been an easy double play. For some reason, though, he threw high and wide, and gave the Indians an extra out with their best hitter coming to the plate.

Shin-Soo Choo was 3-for-4 with a double and a steal when he faced Sale. He finished the day 3-for-5, as Sale threw him all fastballs, and Choo couldn’t touch any of them. Sale recorded his first major-league save.

Bad defense plagued the Sox all day. Alexei Ramirez suffered a hard-luck error when Jayson Nix spiked his hand, forcing him to drop a good throw from A.J. Pierzynski on a pitchout. Nix ended up scoring, and he forced another Ramirez error later in the game when Ramirez couldn’t rush an accurate throw to Konerko on a high chopper.

Andruw Jones also threw wide of home that gave the Indians an extra base, and Tony Pena stumbled off the mound on a bunt attempt. At least both of those didn’t directly lead to a run.

And if two Nix-caused foibles weren’t enough, Freddy Garcia left after four innings. He tweaked his back trying to field a Nix chopper preceding the spike steal, and he felt good enough to finish the inning, but not good enough to continue. Pena pitched three OK innings once he settled down, and Sergio Santos picked up the win with a scoreless inning aided by a perfect Konerko 3-6-3 double play.

Record: 73-60 | Box score | Play-by-play