Sox Fall Apart Late Against O’s

Phillip Humber took the mound tonight making his first start of 2012. Although he struggled with his control throughout the 5.1 innings that he pitched, he was able to hold Baltimore to just one run. Humber struck out 7 and walked 3, his only run coming in the 4th on a Mark Reynolds double with two men on. Overall, I was impressed by Humber tonight, he showed a lot of pride, pitchingout of a few jams. Thats a sign of a tough pitcher, working out of jams and holding down offenses on nights when your best stuff isn’t there.

The White Sox plated one in the second on an absolute bomb by AJ Pierzynski, who has been red hot as of late. AJ was 3 for 3 tonight with a homer, a single, a run scored and an RBI, he was also intentionally walked.  Captain Paul Konerko dropped a timely hit in the 6th when he drove an outside fastball into the right field corner, plating De Aza and Morel, Paulie was 1 for 4 on the night with 2 RBIs. The Sox would add another one in the 8th on a bizarre sac fly into the seats by Alejandro De Aza scoring Brent Lillibridge (pinch running for Viciedo) from 3rd.

The White Sox used 5 pitchers out of the bullpen tonight (Ohman, Thornton, Crain, Santiago, Stewart in that order). The bullpen was a little shaky allowing numerous base runners, pitching over those base runners until the 8th when Matt Wieters homered off a Jesse Crain slider. Hector Santiago came in to close it down in the 9th, looking for his 4th save in as many opportunities. After allowing a lead off homerun to Nolan Reimold (after what should have been called strike 3) he retired Hardy and Markakis only to allow the game tying homerun to Adam Jones. Don Cooper was thrown out after a mound visit following the Jones homer, undoubtably arguing the no call to Reimold.

The Orioles would tack on 6 in the 10th after an absolutely horrendous showing by the White Sox. The Sox would fail to score in the bottom half and what looked like the Sox 6th win of the year would turn into a sickening 10-4 loss.