Anytime the World Champs roll into town, it’s a big series. When it looks like they could be a potential playoff opponent in October, it’s an even bigger deal. The White Sox didn’t far too bad as they walked away with a 2-2 split.
I think Luis Vizcaino has some sort of dirt on Ozzie Guillen. Not that he’d care too much, and I know there’s always a need for a long relief/mop up guy, but it seems like he’s gotten way too many highly leveraged innings this season. Thursday’s game is a great example. The White Sox had just gotten done tying the game in the bottom of the eighth, and in comes Vizcaino to lose it (his fourth loss of the season) in the ninth on a Manny Ramirez homer. With three errors and a so-so outing by Mark Buehrle, we shouldn’t have won the game anyway.
The home team bounced back on Friday with their best offensive showing of the series. A pair of three run homers by A.J. Pierzynski and Juan Uribe in the sixth opened the game up. Jon Garland was good but not great, but he walked away with his league leading 15th win of the season.
Saturday’s game was the most disappointing of the series. Orlando Hernandez threw a very solid game and then pen did their job as well. The problem was, Wade Miller completely shut us down. The Sox made a go at a comeback in the ninth off of Curt Schilling, but running catch at the wall by Manny Ramirez completed the shutout.
The Sox evened the series up yesterday behind the bat of Tadahito Iguchi. He went three for four, which included a two run homer and an RBI single. Scott Podsednik had three hits and two runs, and Paul Konerko hit a two run shot to set the stage in the first inning.
Guillen used five different relievers in the game. Jose Contreras improved to 6-6 as he struck out six through 5 2/3 innings.
The White Sox stand 12 games ahead of the Twins in the loss column, and Minnesota did not look good this weekend against the Tigers. The White Sox are on pace to win 107 games, and even if they go the rest of the way at a .500 clip, they’d win 96 games. I think 100 has to be the goal of the team, which is within reach. The last time the White Sox won 100 games (and it was exactly 100) was 1917, and we all know what happened that year.
