White Sox Again Test the Limits of First Place Residence

This one started with offense. The Sox kicked things off by bringing 3 runs around in the opening frame against Scott Diamond. When the 2nd started, Jose Quintana showed that he once again didn’t have it as the Twins plated a handful of their own, and it became clear it would be a long night. The good news is Jamey Carroll did not hit a homerun.

Twins (56-79):18
White Sox (72-62): 9

Man that 1st inning was pretty cool, right? Jose Quintana put the Twins down 1-2-3. The Sox exploded out of the gates with singles from Kevin Youkilis and Alex Rios as well as a pair of doubles from Adam Dunn and Dayan Viciedo. We all smiled, looked at the score of the Detroit game and started to dream of being up 2 games in the division again. Then came the 2nd inning.

It all started innocently enough: a couple singles, a couple walks, no big deal, lead still in hand. Then came another single. Then came another single. Then came another single. Then came another single. That would mark the end of Jose Quintana’s night. Dylan Axelrod entered to stop the bleeding and eat up some innings. Then came another single. An out came next! Oh but it was a run scoring out. Then came another single. 7 runs would be scored by the Twins in the inning, on 8 singles. Nary a hard hit ball in the bunch really.

If I said it got worse, you’d think I was kidding, but I wouldn’t be. 4 pitchers would contribute to the 5th inning effort in which the Twins scored 10 (TEN!) times. The most laughable of lines was presented by Mr. Perfect, Philip Humber, whose 5.81 ERA would already have been omitted from the resume, given a choice, further damaged that number by going one third of an inning and giving up 8 runs. Quintana’s 7 runs on 1.1 innings was only the second worst effort on the night. Put that one under your pillow, young fella.

The Sox did manage to put some additional runs on the board, putting up what in any other game would have been an exciting 8th inning where they plated 4 on 5 doubles. In the 9th for the second time this season White Sox fans had the opportunity to see Dewayne Wise on the mound, this time for the Chicago side (the last being for the Yankees against Chicago). He proved to be better than most everybody else that considered throwing a ball from the mound with a pinstriped uniform tonight, completing the inning without giving up a run.

Plus: The Tigers lost. No, really, that’s the plus. The lead stays 1 game despite this massacre.

Minus: Please refer to score.

Player of the Game:
Dayan Viciedo – .116 WPA

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