Adam Jones the Latest in Line of Sox Killers

The long ball and Adam Jones get the Sox again. Gavin Floyd was less than sharp and the Orioles were able to tag him for 5 runs in his 6 innings. The bullpen finished off strong but Sox hitters were unable to make up the difference, dropping the team back to .500 for the 4th time already this season.

Orioles: 5
White Sox: 3

Brent Lillibridge and Eduardo Escobar did their best Morel and Beckham imitations at the plate, combining to go 0-8 with 4 strikeouts. Unfortunately Escobar couldn’t do a Gordo imitation in the field, failing to cover second on a base hit by Adam Jones in the 1st and then failing to cover first later on a Chavez bunt that was fielded by Gavin Floyd with Konerko charging. Neither lead directly to runs so the kid may have gotten some rookie errors out of the way on the cheap.

Sox bats were not asleep, they just couldn’t quite get the job done. Bases loaded threats occurred in the 1st, 3rd and 9th innings, and those innings would end that way as well. The loading of the bases in the 9th was rather curious. With Brent Morel (pinch running) standing on 3rd and Gordon Beckham (pinch running) standing on 1st, Paul Konerko represented the winning run at the plate when a Jim Johnson pitch came in on Paulie’s hands and hit him. Home plate umpire Jerry Meals was reluctant to award Konerko first, as he apparently didn’t think it hit him at first. Which begs the question, wouldn’t we rather have Paulie up with 2 outs than Rios up with 2 outs? Rios as a run would mean nothing and despite swinging a reasonable bat of late, Paul Konerko is unquestionably the best hitter on the team. Regardless, Paulie was eventually awarded first and Alex Rios struck out looking to end the game.

Kids on the field! Some adventurous kiddo took it upon himself to interrupt play for a bit and ran out onto a live playing field. He couldn’t have been 5 or 6 by the looks of him. Dayan tracked him down, picked him up and walked him over to security. As I understand it the kid and his family were then ejected from the park.

Plus: Adam Dunn is a doubles machine. Dunn added another double to his total today, bringing him to 5. Though the game may have ended while the bat sat on his shoulder, Alex Rios really does show signs of coming back to life. We can only hope it lasts.

Minus: De Aza CAUGHT STEALING. We are not heading in a good direction on the running front. To be fair, Baltimore was handing us baserunning outs to us just as much.

Tipping Point:
My eyes – Adam Jones HR in the 5th.
The numbers – Adam Jones HR in the 5th (19.8% change in win expectancy)

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