This game was pretty unfortunate. Brandon McCarthy’s strong major league debut went to waste as it looks like Guillen had him a pretty strict pitch count. With one out and a man on in the fifth (McCarthy had hit Derek Lee), Guillen pulled McCarthy after 78 pitches. He struck out six, and ended up being credited with two earning runs when Lee eventually scored.
In comes Luis Vizcaino and out goes the game. A few batters later, Jason DuBois took Vizcaino deep with a three run shot to put the Cubs in front for good. Paul Konero hit a solo shot in the ninth to shave the lead to 4-3, but that was all the Sox could get.
Guillen was his usual testy self after the game when he poorly defended taking McCarthy out. Probably the one bad thing about the Sox great start is we’ll get to see Ozzie Guillen in the dugout for several years to come.
The Twins won in extra frames, and the lead is back down to five. The Sox have a tough four game series against a good, but Vlad-less Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Travelling out west is never a good thing, so I’d be pretty happy if they split the series 2-2.
