Black Sox Blog

What a game. Paul Konerko hit a two run homer in the sixth inning to break a 2-2 tie. In the Red Sox half of the sixth, Manny Ramirez hit a solo homer, and Damasco Marte proceeded to load up the bases. Orlando Hernandez came in and got two pop ups and then got Johnny Damon to strikeout to end the inning. Damon bailed us out because the pitch was in the dirt. He tried to check up, but just couldn’t quite hold back.

The White Sox added a run in the ninth when A.J. Pierzynski scored on a suicide squeeze. Bobby Jenks pitched a perfect ninth to finish the sweep.

I’ve been pretty critical of Ozzie Guillen all season, but he did a number of things right in this series. He kept Buehrle in longer then most managers would have in game 2 and Mark calmed down and gave the Sox seven good innings. Heck, even the squeeze play today was a nice call.

The Yankees and Angels are tied in their game three 6-6 with the series tied up 1-1. Hopefully we’ll take advantage of the nice break and we’ll be ready when things start back up on Tuesday.

What a game. The Red Sox jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead and things looked to be done. The White Sox put two runs on the board in fifth and had Joe Crede on first with one out. Juan Uribe hit into what should have been an inning ending double was misplayed by Tony Graffanino. Two things about David Wells are, he’s a very good pitcher and he’s a pitcher who’s very good about getting rattled. He seemed to calm down and got Scott Podsednik to foul out, but then Tad Iguchi hit a HUGE three run homerun to the give the White Sox the lead.

Mark Buehrle got through seven innings before giving the ball to Bobby Jenks. Nothing like throwing the kid into the fire as the first batter he faced was Manny Ramirez. He got him to fly out and the only flaw in two innings of work was a double by Tony Graffanino in the ninth with one out. He got Johny Damon to foul out and then Edgar Rentaria to foul out.

The White Sox are now one win away from going to the ALCS, but we’re going to Fenway. It’d be nice if we could wrap this up tomorrow.

What a game. The White Sox put five runs on the board in the first inning and they never looked back. It was 6-0 before the Red Sox finally got on the board with two runs in the fourth. The White Sox answered immediately with two in the bottom half of the inning, and eventually put 14 runs up.

In all, the White Sox hit five homers. A.J. Pierzynski blasted two homers and went three for three. Scott Podsednik, who didn’t hit a single homerun in the regular season, went yard in the sixth inning.

Jose Contreras was very solid. He went 7 2/3 and gave up only two runs on eight hits while striking out six. Game two tomorrow features David Wells against Mark Buehrle, and it’s on during prime time, which is nice. No need to kill the mouse button by hitting refresh while on the Yahoo box score at work.

In a way, we brought this upon ourselves. The White Sox square off against the Red Sox in Chicago on Tuesday at 4 pm. We went 1-2 at Fenway this year, but it’s not a fun place to play, so in my mind, keeping home field advantage in our lap is a neccesity.

I didn’t expect us to sweep the Indians with nothing to play for, but I guess it goes to show you how well you can do if you’re loose and the other team is tight. In the process, we knocked the Tribe out of the playoffs. Had the Indians won the wildcard, we would have faced the Yankees, and I honestly don’t know which would be worse.

Curt Schilling pitched today, so he probably won’t be ready to go until at least Friday. By then, I’m hoping we’ll be up 2-0.