Sox Take the First, Deep in the Heart of Texas
By Ryan Ganser
What was supposed to be a pitchers duel turned into a hit parade early. With Chris Sale facing off against Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers in Arlington on Friday night, most baseball fans expected to see a few hits scattered around with a run or two being more than enough to claim a victory. But with a total of 14 runs scored in the game and 5 runs scored in the first inning, it was quite the opposite between the AL West and AL Central leaders.
The White Sox plated one run in the first inning on an Alex Rios sacrifice fly. Not to be outdone, the Rangers answered back in the bottom half of the first with 4 runs. A Josh Hamilton sac fly tied it at one and a Nelson Cruz 3 run homer gave the Rangers an early 4-1 lead. I’ll be honest, with Darvish on the mound and a 3 run deficit in the first inning, things didn’t look that great for our Sox.
The Pale Hosers would bounce right back in the second, putting up two runs on a Kevin Youkilis bomb, only to chalk up two more runs in the fourth on a Alejandro De Aza single with runners on second and third. The Sox would add another run in the seventh on an Alex Rios fielders choice, scoring Adam Dunn from third and giving our White Sox the 6-4 advantage.
Things would get a little interesting in the seventh inning as the Rangers staged a hefty threat. But with bases loaded and the ever dangerous Josh Hamilton at the plate, Matt Thornton would induce a ground ball resulting in a fielders choice and would retire Michael Young on a fly out to right field, minimizing the damage to only one run and preserving a one run lead going into the eighth.
Fast forward to the top of the ninth. With Dunn on first and your local White Sox insurance agent, Alex Rios at the plate the Sox would throw up a few runs to cushion the lead. Starting with a Rios double plating Dunn (7-5 S0x) and ending with an Alexei Ramirez two run homer giving the Sox the 9-5 lead heading to the bottom half of the inning.
Enter Addison Reed and the rest is history as the Sox would come out of this one winners with the final score of 9-5.
Sale had a tough start and we saw a few tough innings, but all in all the Sox showed they are a tough team, fighting back from an early deficit in order to overcome and hold off a very solid Rangers ball club in their home park. I still think the bullpen needs a little help and with the trade deadline approaching and the market for pitchers slowly diminishing to a pile of nothing, the Sox might need to make the best with what they have (which honestly could be a lot worse, in terms of their pitching situation). The offense is going to be ok and the rotation is not bad (should be interesting to see what happens with John Danks). That bullpen just scares me.
Oh and by the way, the Tigers lost, so we are now 1.5 games up. Lets get the next one tomorrow, boys.
