Black Sox Blog

With their third straight win, the White Sox pulled into a tie in the AL Central with the Minnesota Twins.  Battling the slumping Seattle Mariners, the Sox earned their second win in Seattle by a score of 8-4.  In the second inning Carlos Quentin and Brian Anderson each homered and combined for five RBI’s as the Sox rallied for six early runs.  Javier Vazquez earned his fourth win of the season by lasting five and two-thirds innings, giving up six hits, four earned runs, and six strike outs.  Getting out to an early 6-0 lead was huge for the Sox and really helped Vazquez to get into the groove and pitch a great game against the Mariners.  Richie Sexson did not play for the Mariners because he was serving the first of a five game suspension for charging the mound against the Texas Rangers on Thursday.  The Sox take on the Mariners in the final game of their three game series and are looking for the series sweep.  Gavin Floyd will take the mound against Miguel Batista.

The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins on Thursday 6-2 in a game that helped them take the series with Minnesota two games to one.  Jermain Dye hit a home run in his third straight game to fuel the Sox to the win.  Despite only eight hits in the game, the Sox had key hits in critical situations which seemed to have been lacking lately.  Juan Uribe went one for three with a two run shot in the fifth inning to give the Sox the 3-2 lead and the Sox never looked back.  John Danks started the game and pitched a solid five innings giving up six hits, two earned runs, and five strike outs.  Two big wins against Minnesota really helped Chicago’s fight in the AL Central, they are now one game behind the Twins for first place in the division.  Tomorrow the Sox take on the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field for the start of a three game series.  Jose Contreras will face off against Carlos Silva in the first game.

Gavin Floyd pitched a spectacular game which helped lead his Sox to a 7-1 lead and broke up their six game losing streak.  Floyd had a no hitter going into the ninth inning, with one out Joe Mauer hit a double into the gap ending Floyd’s bid for a no hitter.  All in all, Floyd ended up lasting eight and one-third innings giving up one hit, one run, three walks and four strike outs.  The Sox offense came alive with eleven hits compared to only two strike outs.  Jermain Dye led the way for the South Side Sluggers with two hits, one of which was a home run.  Several other players also contributed a pair of hits in a game that really saw the offense come alive and rally behind their pitcher when they really needed it.  Despite having his no-no broken up when it was so close, Floyd pitched a gem and put his team in a position to win.  Mark Buehrle will take the mound on Wednesday against the Minnesota Twins and Livan Hernandez.

Javier Vazquez faced off against Dustin McGowan and the Toronto Blue Jays in a game that was characterized by great pitching on both sides of the mound.  Vazquez went seven and two-thirds innings, giving up eight hits, one earned run, and nine strike outs.  McGowan lasted seven and one-third innings giving up four hits and six strike outs.  The difference in the game was a solo home run by Matt Stairs in the bottom of the seventh inning to push Toronto atop Chicago 1-0.  Chicago hitters could not get anything going in a game in which they only tallied four hits compared with six strike outs.  The sixth straight loss by the Sox has the team back on their heals fighting and trying to find a way to get back into the win column.  Nobody on the team is batting over .300 and the pitchers have been getting no insurance runs to give themselves a fighting chance.  Fresh off two sweeps in a row, the Sox travel home for a three game series against the Minnesota Twins.  Gavin Floyd gets the start in the first game on Tuesday.

Despite Jose Contreras pitching a complete game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Roy Halladay’s pitching out shined Contreras for the 4-3 win.  Handing Chicago their fifth straight loss, Halladay last seven and one-third innings giving up three hits, one earned run, and seven strike outs with no walks.  Throughout the game Contreras gave up six hits, four earned runs and five strike outs.  The Sox offense only produced four hits on the day in which three of them were doubles.  They scored three runs in the fourth inning however that was the only inning that the Sox managed to do any damage against Roy Halladay.  With only four hits in the game, the Sox team batting average fell to .232 and remains the lowest in the AL.  After the tough loss, Manager Ozzie Guillen ripped the Chicago fans after the game saying that they will never be respected no matter how many World Series they win.  Full of obscenities, Ozzie thinks the fans are too fast to forget the accomplishments of the Sox and the players deserve more respect.  The Sox finish up the series with the Blue Jays on Monday and look to end their losing streak with Javier Vazquez on the mound.

The Toronto Blue Jays handed the White Sox their fourth straight loss and seventh loss in their last tenth game.  The Sox offense has been terrible and it continued to be bad in this game.  Only getting six hits off of Toronto pitching, they also struck out six times.  Jermain Dye and Carlos Quentin each hit a solo home run but it wasn’t nearly enough to beat the Blue Jays.  John Danks had a less than stellar pitching performance, lasting four and two-thirds innings, seven hits, two earned runs, and five strike outs.  Octavio Dotel also had a bad outing relieving for one inning in the sixth and gave up two hits and three runs.  Ozzie Guillen and the Sox are definitely frustrated to be in a slump, offsetting their great start and losing the division lead to the Minnesota Twins who just swept the Detroit Tigers in a three game series.  The series will not get any easier on Sunday as Jose Contreras takes on the incredible Roy Halladay as the two teams battle in the third game of their four game series.

A clutch two out RBI double in the seventh inning by Justin Morneau helped push the Twins past the Sox for the second straight game and a two game series sweep.  Despite a pretty good outing by the Sox pitching staff, the Sox offense could not come through in the clutch to put the necessary runs on the board.  Nick Masset started the game and lasted four innings giving up five hits, three earned runs, three walks, and five strike outs.  Ehren Wasserman gave up the hit in the seventh inning that was the difference between the two teams in the end.  Brian Anderson led the way for the Sox offense with three hits in four at bats.  Jim Thome added two hits and Carlos Quentin added a solo home run.  The South Side Sluggers head to Toronto on Friday for a four game series against the Blue Jays.  The Sox will be without Orlando Cabrera due to issues with his visa.  Manager Ozzie Guillen will try to mix up the line up in order to find a good offensive rhythm that can help put some runs on the board for the Sox.