2007 State of the Sox

May 21: White Sox 8, Athletics 5

If bad luck has victimized the White Sox as much as bad approaches, perhaps tonight is the start of evening out the former category.

Everything the Sox did offensively worked, starting with the lineup card.  With Juan Uribe attending to his ailing mother in the hospital, Joe Crede nursing a stiff back and Scott Podsednik still out, Ozzie Guillen had to field a lineup with Pablo Ozuna, Alex Cintron and Rob Mackowiak filling in the left side.

They all held up their end of the bargain, and with the regulars starting to come around, the Sox offense rolled.

Some highlights:

• The Sox were 2-for-2 in hit-and-runs -- Cintron got Mackowiak to third with a single to right, and Paul Konerko singled to left with Luis Terrero running, and both led to runs.
  
• Pablo Ozuna laid down a sac bunt with runners on first and second with nobody out, and Mackowiak followed with a single to drive in two.
• Cintron and Darin Erstad each had two-out RBI singles; Erstad's came after Mackowiak and Cintron each struck out with the bases loaded.
• Erstad and Ozuna each beat out weak grounders for infield singles.

Konerko had three hits, and A.J. Pierzynski drove in two.  Only Tadahito Iguchi and Jim Thome (in his first start since coming back from the rib injury) finished without a hit.

If only the defense could've been as consistent.  Jose Contreras had to pitch out of some jams, and he was largely successful thanks to a season-high eight strikeouts.  Mackowiak freaked out on a liner to him that would've ended the first, but Contreras got out of the inning unscathed.  He'd do the same in the fourth inning when Jermaine Dye misread and pulled up short on a Jack Cust liner, contuining a streak of suspect defending.  Luis Terrero, who filled in for Dye when he got ejected arguing a strike three, ended the game by catching a ball hit the same way.

Nick Swisher did all the damage Contreras suffered with one swing, a bases-clearing double in the fifth that was the fourth straight hit off Contreras; the Count dusted himself off and wouldn't allow Swisher to score.  He also drove in the other two runs off Boone Logan to turn the game into a save situation, which Bobby Jenks would close out, but only after he allowed the tying run to come to the plate with nobody out.

Mike MacDougal entered the game with an opportunity to get some work in a low-leverage situation but faltered again.  Part of it was due to Ozuna, who didn't trust himself when he caught a chopper with his foot on third, when a force-out would've ended the inning.  He fired to first, the throw was late, and the ump didn't see the force at third.  Then again, MacDougal has no excuse for walking two batters with a five-run lead in the first place.

The Sox bullpen was wild overall, walking four in 2 2/3 innings; Contreras only issued one free pass in the first 6 1/3 frames.

Record: 22-19 | Box score | Play-by-play