When the Sox embarked on an 8 game, 3 city road trip, it looked as if they could be headed for big trouble. The offense was terrible, their best hitter was on the DL, and they were facing 3 teams with winning records.
The trip is now in the books, and after losing the first 3, the Sox rode the time-honored combination of timely hitting and excellent pitching to victories in 4 of the last 5 games. The Sox finish the trip a game over .500, and 4 games out of first place in the AL Central.
TUESDAY- TWINS 7, SOX 4
The Sox have games that can shave a good 2 or 3 hours off of my night's sleep. The 2-1 loss in Oakland early in the season, where Bobby Jenks gave up a 2 out, 2 strike game tying single the reprehensible Todd Walker, was one of them, and this one was certainly another. The Sox took a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning thanks to a Joe Crede solo homer and a big sixth inning. Javier Vazquez was cruising, but was pulled before the start of the inning as his pitch count was near 100, and the bullpen should be able to hold a lead like that. Should being the operative word, the bullpen didn't hold as all 3 of the batters Mike MacDougal faced ended up coming around to score, tying the game at 4. Then, in the 10th inning, with 2 outs runners on first and second, Ozzie decided he'd rather have Nick Masset face AL MVP Justin Morneau than Jeff Cirillo, and Morneau rewarded this brain fart with a no-doubt about it 3 run homer to give the Sox a painful loss.
Game Scores- Vazquez SOX 71, Bonser MIN 57
WEDNESDAY- SOX 6, TWINS 3
Evidently, Tuesday's loss stuck in the Sox' craw as much as it stuck in mine, because they came out like a house of fire on Wednesday. They roughed up Ramon Ortiz for four runs in the first inning, capped off by a big 2 run single by Ryan Sweeney. John Danks shut the Twins down over 6 2/3 to pick up his first win of his major league career, despite another shaky effort from MacDougal, who has surrendered 5 runs in his last inning pitched covering 2 outings, inflating his ERA to an unsightly 5.68. Things got hairy in the ninth inning when Bobby Jenks walked the first two batters he faced despite having a 3 run lead to protect, but he recovered to retire the next three in order and pick up his 11th save.
Game Scores- Danks SOX 65, Ortiz MIN 38
THURSDAY- SOX 3, TWINS 0
Jose Contreras evidently has a lot more left than people think he does. Since an awful Opening Day outing, he has been very good, and Thursday afternoon in Minnesota he was great, throwing a complete game 5 hit shutout to give the Sox their second straight series win. The Sox now boast road series victories over both the Tigers and Twins already this season, and are showing they should not be discounted in the AL Central race.
Game Scores- Contreras SOX 80, Silva MIN 47
UP NEXT
V. KC ROYALS (11-24)
FRI- Odalis Perez v. Jon Garland
SAT- Scott Elarton v. Mark Buehrle
SUN- Jorge de la Rosa v. Javier Vazquez
I absolutely hate when the Sox play the Royals. Nothing stings my psyche more than when the Sox disappoint me, and anything short of a sweep against this team is a disappointment, yet sweeping any Major League team isn't an easy thing to do.
The Sox won the opener of this series, but didn't look very impressive in doing so. The Royals had given up 38 runs in their last 4 games headed into this one, so it seemed like a good opportunity for the Sox to work on those embarrassing batting averages they've been toting around. Seems like, but on Friday that wasn't the case. The blue hitting funk returned, and the Sox sweated out a 2-1 victory thanks to a run-scoring error by KC shortstop Tony Pena Jr., a great pitching performance by Jon Garland, and fortuitous placement of what could have been a game-tying line drive off the bat of Mike Sweeney in the ninth that instead found the glove of Joe Crede to end the game.
Saturday the Sox face Scott Elarton, who is making his first start of the 07 season. Elarton's a former Cleveland Indian, and the Sox have hit only .226 against him in his 10 career starts against the Sox. On Sunday they'll face Jorge de la Rosa, who has been pretty good this year, except when he pitches on the road, where he has a 6.50 ERA in 3 starts.
AL CENTRAL ROUNDUP
TIGERS 22-12, 1ST PLACE
THIS WEEK- 2-1 v. Mariners (9-7, 2-9, 7-3)
The Tigers have been rolling lately, but yet, they look vulnerable. They are scoring a lot of runs, and giving up a lot of runs as well. Giving up a lot of runs is always and everywhere a troubling sign, and so are injuries to your pitching staff. The Tigers got word that Joel Zumaya is going to be out for months with his finger injury, and now Jeremy Bonderman is going to miss a start because of an injury to his finger. Maybe they should do away with the pre-game bullpen elephant walk in the wake of all these finger injuries.
NEXT- 3 at MIN (Won Friday 7-3)
INDIANS 20-13, 2ND PLACE -1.5
THIS WEEK- 1-2 at Angels (5-1, 2-3, 0-8)
Geez, it's amazing how much less impressive a team can look when it's not always playing the Orioles and the Devil Rays. As expected, the Indians have pissed all over themselves on their West Coast trip, dropping the final 2 games of their series in Anaheim, and getting clubbered in Sabathia's start in the series opener in Oakland. Rookie starter Jeremy Sowers is now 0-3 with a 6.56 ERA on the season, and has posted game scores below 30 in 3 of his last 5 starts.
NEXT- 3 at OAK (Lost Friday 2-8)
I'll have a new Game Score Corner on Monday, as in the last week we've had a few new entries in the top 10, and the guy who was number 1 at the end of April in average game score, Matt Cain, isn't even in the top 10 anymore after a couple of rough outings.
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