2007 State of the Sox

August 7: Indians 2, White Sox 1

In the first inning, Jerry Owens stood on first with nobody out and Victor Martinez behind the plate.  He stole second with ease, advanced to third on Josh Fields' grounder and scored two batters later on a Paul Konerko sacrifice fly.

In the ninth inning, Owens stood on first with nobody out and Martinez behind the plate, after Owens lucked out when Martinez allowed a called third strike to get past him.  Ozzie Guillen called for Fields to bunt on the first pitch.  He executed, but in the process, gave that spare out right back to the Indians.  Jim Thome gets Owens to third with a deepish fly to right, but that's where Owens is stranded when A.J. Pierzynski lines out softly to second to end the game.

Why Owens didn't get a chance to steal second again is beyond me -- especially after watching Joe Borowski's pickoff move, which is so awful it looks like he can't remember which foot is supposed to go forward when he throws.

If Owens makes second, then the Sox have three shots to get him home, or two shots to get him home from third if you call for the bunt then.  If he gets caught, then at least we know that there really is no use for having Owens on the roster, because nobody of his supposed caliber is supposed to be caught by a guy like Martinez in a big situation.

As it turns out, the Sox could've used that out.  Instead of getting John Danks off the hook during his most impressive outing as a big-league pitcher, the rookie took the loss in a game reminiscent of his first month, when he received nearly zero run support.

Danks' changeup-fastball combo couldn't have been better, and he used it to strike out a career high eight batters on the night.  Danks attacked hitters (65 of his 99 pitches were strikes), and when he got two strikes on them, he set them up high with the 91-m.p.h. fastball up in the zone, then followed with the 77-m.p.h. changeup with the tailing action away from right-handers.  It seemed like Cleveland hitters couldn't tell when the change was coming, because Danks had them on their heels.

Even the pitch that gave him the loss was a good one -- he got a fastball in on the hands of Grady Sizemore, but he inside-outed it just past Juan Uribe onto the outfield grass to drive in two runs.

Danks still has room for improvement, because he gave up three warning-track shots.  Nevertheless, it was a remarkable outing for a guy who appeared to be running out of gas.

Unfortuantely, the offense couldn't solve Jake Westbrook.  After Owens crossed the plate in the first, the Sox only threatened one other time.  Scott Podsednik singled and stole second in the fifth inning, but Westbrook, who only allowed two singles through the box on the evening, snagged Danny Richar's comebacker for the third out.

Record: 52-60 | Box score | Play-by-play