2007 State of the Sox

July 28: White Sox 2, Toronto 0

The last time Mark Buehrle and Roy Halladay locked horns, Buehrle allowed only two runs via the home run while going the distance, but lost 2-0.

This time, the hand was on the other foot, as Buehrle shut down the Blue Jays over eight strong innings, making Halladay the hard-luck loser.  Of course, when you consider Jerry Owens actually took Halladay deep for his first career home run, perhaps this was a game Doc deserved to lose.

It all happened so quickly.  Danny Richar, playing his first game for the White Sox, led off the inning with a single past a drawn-in Troy Glaus, and Halladay clearly wasn't happy that the grounder got through.  Owens then took the first pitch he saw, a low and inside fastball, and actually turned on it for once.  The ball barely cleared the right-field fence, and the Sox had all the runs they needed.

Buehrle was lean, mean and efficient.  He scattered eight hits and a walk over eight innings, striking out six.  He was aided by three double plays, including one nicely turned by Richar.  He did commit a rare error in the first inning, pulling his head up on an Alexis Rios nubber in the first inning.  However, in the eighth inning, with a runner on first and Rios at the plate, the situation repeated itself.  Buehrle picked up the ball with his bare hand, spinned and fired to get Rios by half a step.

The Sox were lucky to have Buehrle on his game, because Halladay stumped Sox hitters for most of the game.  And when they had opportunities, they shot themselves in the foot.  Scott Podsednik overran third on a Richar infield single, and John McDonald caught him too far off the bag to end one scoring threat.

Equally as ugly was a situation in the sixth, when Paul Konerko reached on a Troy Glaus error and A.J. Pierzynski singled.  Jermaine Dye took all the air out of the potential rally when he put a terribly weak swing on a pitch that was never in the strike zone.  He stuck his bat out, hit a soft grounder to short that started a 6-4-3.

Record: 48-56 | Box score | Play-by-play