2007 State of the Sox

August 21: White Sox 5, Royals 2

A wise man once said:

"Did you enjoy tonight's seven-pitcher effort? Then you're in luck, because Mike Myers is only going to prolong the process."

But that guy didn't expect it to be this re-dad-gum-diculous.

Sure, the Sox won their second straight and took a solo hold of fourth place once again.  Yes, Jim Thome killed the ball, driving in three runs with a first-inning double and a two-run homer, the 493rd of his career.  Danny Richar continues to raise that average, homering for the second straight night.

Oh, and let's not forget an old favorite -- Scott Podsednik hurting himself again.

But the story of this game is Ozzie Guillen's frenetic bullpen usage, an effort that would've made Tony La Russa feel like he's been on autopilot for the last three decades.  It can be boiled down to one sentence:

During this game, five different relievers threw five consecutive pitches.

Yep, the Sox used seven relievers for the second straight night, but unlike yesterday, two Sox relievers actually threw complete innings.  Boone Logan threw a 1-2-3 inning in the seventh, coming in after Javier Vazquez threw six laborious yet ultimately effective innings.  Bobby Jenks finished the game with a 1-2-3 ninth (he's now retired 47 of his last 48!).  Don't blame Ehren Wassermann, who started the reliever sinkhole known as the eighth inning by retiring the only batter he faced, Billy Butler, on a flyout to left.

No, the OOGY a-go-go started with Myers, who came in after Wassermann got his guy.  Ozzie eschewed this year's stats, which showed that Myers struggled against lefties, and brought him in to face old favorite Ross Gload.  Gload promptly sent a single to center.  That ended Myers' night.

Enter Ryan Bukvich, to face right-handed Emil Brown.  Brown shot a single up the middle.  That ended Bukvich's night.

Matt Thornton then jogged in to face lefty Alex Gordon, and thankfully Gordon took the first pitch he saw and turned it into a 4-6-3 double play, because John Buck was on deck.  Had that grounder gotten past Richar, it's quite likely a fifth pitcher would have seen action in one inning.

This can't continue.  Considering it took an hour and 10 minutes to get through three innings, this game had already been moving at a snail's pace before the bullpen got involved.

Record: 56-69 | Box score | Play-by-play