Floyd Falters in Series Finale
By Matt Adams
An attempt to continue a streak of interleague road dominance came up short as Gavin Floyd faltered once again and the Sox were unable to recover against the redbirds. It is the first interleague series the White Sox have lost in a National League park since 2008, ending a run of 12 straight series.
White Sox (34-29): 3
Cardinals (33-31): 5
Gavin Floyd scared everybody a little bit by working a homerless, scoreless, hitless 1st inning but would calm the faithful down soon enough when he served up back to back doubles to open the 2nd. The feeling of impending Floyd-doom came back quickly in the 3rd inning as 2 more runs cross the plate, these via David Freese HR. As poor as he seemed on the mound Floyd managed to find himself in the 5th having only given up 3 runs; not wanting to disappoint, he loaded up the bases in order to face Matt Adams. Adams put the ball in the direction of Alejandro De Aza but it didn’t hang long enough for Alejandro to get to put a glove on it and two runs would score as a result.
Jake Westbrook was perfect through 4 innings until Paul Konerko poked a single to break it up to lead off the 5th. He was promptly erased by an Alex Rios double play and Westbrook cruised a little longer. The Jake Westbrook show came to an end in the 6th inning when Alejandro De Aza started a two out attack with a single, Gordo knocked a two out single of his own, and Adam Dunn pushed off of his good ankle to send a 3-run shot into the right center stands. Unfortunately, the St. Louis bullpen’s entrance did not signal more scoring for the Sox and the 5-3 score stayed there.
Plus: The bullpen put in 3+ innings of scoreless ball. These days, that’s a moral victory.
Minus: Gavin Floyd is a big fat minus. It’s incredible that only 5 runs hit the plate against Floyd, the feeling in the game was that he was pitching from 5 down as soon as the first went on the board. Floyd managed to serve up a free pass to opposing pitcher Jake Westbrook…twice. Which, incidentally hasn’t ever happened in interleague play for the Sox.
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