Just what Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox need: another reason to think the Twins are dreamy.
The Sox looked like they had this one wrapped up with a three-run lead in the eighth inning and a dominant outing by Javier Vazquez, and instead the Sox burn five relievers and still let the Twins win in the most triumphant of fashions -- with Justin Morneau hitting a three-run, walk-off homer.
This one hurts, because after flailing away helplessly at Boof Bonser's assortment of pitches, the Sox finally figured out how to take what was given to them. With the game 1-1 in the sixth (solo shots by Morneau and Joe Crede provided the only scoring), the Sox put together a scrappy rally started off with a leadoff double by Darin Erstad, who would score when Bonser threw away going to third on a bad bunt attempt by Pablo Ozuna.
It looked like that one run would be all the Sox would take when Jermaine Dye struck out a second time (he looked terrible against Bonser) and Paul Konerko grounded out. But the Sox took shorter swings with two outs, and A.J. Pierzynski, Crede and Iguchi poked three consecutive line drives over the infield to stretch the lead to 4-1.
But Mike MacDougal, once again off with his locations, gave up a cheap infield single and two legitimate hits before leaving with no outs, and the runs would trickle in on a groundout induced by Matt Thornton, and a single by Torii Hunter, who extended his hitting streak to 22 games.
The Sox's offense was spent after that, while the Twins would rally in the 10th after a leadoff double by Luis Castillo that fit -- or didn't, I couldn't tell -- just inside the third-base line. Nick Masset looked like he could get out of it when he served up the game-winning shot to Morneau.
It wasted a tremendous outing by Javier Vazquez, whose only mistake was a get-me-over 2-0 fastball to Morneau for the first run of the game. After battling through the first two innings, for which he needed 40 pitches, he got through the next five on 67. I would've sent him out for the eighth because he faced the minimum in the two previous innings, and he showed the ability to pitch into the 110s last year.
Record: 14-15 |
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