2007 State of the Sox

September 28: White Sox 5, Tigers 2

Javier Vazquez didn't set the modern-day single-season franchise record for strikeouts in a season, but he gave it a good go.

Vazquez pitched  7 2/3 solid innings, striking out nine to give him 213 for the season, good for sixth all-time on the White Sox list, and second on the list of pitchers not named Ed Walsh.  He squarely retained the best strikeout rate in franchise history.

His 15th win began ominously, when he "hit" Curtis Granderson with the second pitch of the game.  The pitch could've actually been called a strike, but Granderson dipped his elbow down over the inside corner and let it glance off him.  Placido Polanco followed with a single, and Magglio Ordonez scored one with a double on an 0-2 pitch.

Darin Erstad nearly caught the ball, but crashed into the wall trying to make the sliding grab.  Scott Podsednik recovered fairly quickly for leaping over Erstad and threw to Juan Uribe, who fired the relay perfectly to Toby Hall to get Polanco at home.

After that, it was smooth sailing for Vazquez.  Of course, Magglio made him sweat a bit more when he came up to the plate in the eighth inning with two on and two outs, when Ozzie Guillen pulled Vazquez for Ehren Wassermann.  Wassermann jammed the crap out of Ordonez, but made a rookie mistake when he tried to catch the foul pop-up halfway down the first base line.  Paul Konerko had to pull up, Wassermann gave it a half-effort fearing a collision with Konerko, and the ball fell to the ground.

Wassermann recovered, however, and jammed Ordonez again.  This time, the result was a soft liner to Josh Fields.

Meanwhile, Vazquez got enough offensive support, with the main source once again a Konerko three-run homer that gave the Sox the lead for good.  Hall initially tied the game in the second with an RBI single (his third RBI of the year), but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a two-bagger.

Jim Thome, meanwhile, barely cleared the left-field wall with a liner for his 34th homer of the year.

Record: 71-89 | Box score | Play-by-play