It’s no surprise to anyone who has watched any appreciable amount of White Sox baseball so far in 2011 that we have had (more than) our fair share of late inning drama.
It’s also (apparently) no surprise to everyone who has watched any of the Blue Jays’ action, that the same could be said about them.
Scoreless until the 5th, when A.J. Pierzynski singled, Omar Vizquel singled, (Beckham popped out) and Juan Pierre singled to Bautista in RF and AJ managed to beat the throw (seriously). The Jays tied it up in the 6th and that’s where it was when Jesse Crain came out to replace Phil Humber in the 8th. Patterson on first, Bautista at the plate and two out. A typical “let’s call Jesse” scenario, really. And, typically, Bautista walks and Jesse Crain makes it out of the inning safely.
Which, obviously, opened the 9th inning floodgates.
The thing that was the surprise was that, often, the Sox have let it slip away in the end, and the Jays have a tendency to come roaring back.
But, today, Alex Rios ends up with a single, but reaches second on a throwing error (I have a soft for Johnny Mac and was surprised it was him who opened the door) and then third on a wild pitch. Gordon Beckham gets HBP and then steals second (no, really!) and then both of them score on a ANOTHER throwing error. 3-1 Sox, and that’s where it ends (after Santos comes in and turns off the lights on the Jays).
Other random oddities about tonight?
-Juan Pierre had all of our RBIs
-AJ, Juan Pierre, Alex Rios, and Omar had all of our hits
-Quentin and Konerko, (and Dunn) were 0-fer
-the ChiSox caught someone stealing (on a sketchy call)
-the ChiSox stole 2 bases
-Phil Humber pitches 7.2 awesome innings, Jesse Crain walks Bautista and gets Rivera to ground out and manages to bag the W (and, hey, I’ll be happy any time Crain gets a win – and he deserves it for saving the collective butts of the White Sox on a very regular basis – but, at times, the win/save/loss/hold/etc rules are still some of the most non-sensical rules in baseball).
-It’s entirely possible that AJ actually has more friends in Toronto than Alex Rios. Wowie. Apparently the Jays fans know how to hold a grudge, sheesh.
It’s like this entire game was turned on its head, like Canada is opposite-land.
Today’s post deserves photos of the pitchers because, when you get down to it, it really was a pitcher’s duel.
See you on the flip side, y’all.
Watching the Dandelions Grow 