With the Tigers looking like they’re going to sweep the Twins (3-1 in the eighth), the White Sox had a chance to put some room between themselves and the Twins after we got swept. We took care of business in the first two games, but came up just short in the series finale.
The White Sox scored four ninth inning runs to win on Friday. Down 4-2, Ross Gload hit a ninth inning grand slam to put the White Sox in front. Freddy Garcia was okay in six innings of work and Matt Thornton picked up the win. Bobby Jenks threw a perfect ninth for his 27th save of the season.
Yesterday’s game was pretty ugly. The White Sox and Orioles combined for 24 runs on 37 hits. The big inning was a seven run third that put the White Sox up for good, not that the Orioles didn’t make things interesting. Jim Thome scored four runs without getting a hit and A.J. Pierzynski went five for five with a homerun, four RBIs and two runs scored. Jon Garland picked up his eleventh win despite giving up six runs and Jenks picked up save number 28.
The White Sox took a 4-1 lead today but another late inning breakdown by Javier Vazquez gave the Orioles a 5-4 lead. The White Sox answered with three runs in the eighth to make it 7-6, but Bobby Jenks gave up two runs in the bottom of the ninth to give the Orioles the win. Jermaine Dye homered and drove in five runs and Paul Konerko homered and scored twice.
Good news. The Twins have just taken a 4-3 lead over the Tigers. Maybe we won’t drop a game after all. Next up is the cellar dwelling Kansas City Royals. This is a huge series in that we get a chance to make up some ground, which we dearly need.
