Matt Thornton needs to rediscover or redevelop his slider or another breaking pitch of his choosing, because hitters are all too happy to see his fastball.
Aaron Rowand turned this ballgame into another rout with a grand slam on an 0-2 count. It was similar to the last crushing blow suffered under Thornton's watch, when
Bobby Abreu hit a two-run triple to give the Yankees a lead they wouldn't reliniquish on June 7.
That time, Thornton fed Abreu five straight fastballs, and Abreu finally got the timing down and turned on one. This time, Rowand needed only to see three, and with this offense, the game was over right then and there.
Thornton struggled with his control, but one of the three walks he issued over his fateful 1 1/3 innings was a very questionable intentional walk. Ozzie Guillen decided to walk Burrell, batting only .167 against lefties this year, to face Abraham Nunez, who has hit lefties at a .286 clip this year.
You can guess what happened.
The Sox bullpen entered this game with two straight games' worth of scoreless outings, but a rough John Danks outing -- 103 pitches over 4 2/3 innings -- left the middle relief corps exposed for too long. Ryan Bukvich managed to strand two runners by recording the third out of the fifth inning, but would allow the tying run to cross the plate the next inning after two singles and a Rowand RBI groundout.
It seemed like the Sox were geared up to avoid the split when they touched Kyle Kendrick for a run in each of the first three innings. None of them came via the solo homer, which had provided the last six runs spread over the previous three games. Jermaine Dye hit an RBI double (raise that trade value!), Josh Fields drove in Luis Terrero with a single, and Alex Cintron scored on a Dye double play.
Of course, as the Sox offense has done throughout the year, it basically shut down from the fourth inning on. They had one more opportunity to get back into the game in the eighth when they had runners on second and third and nobody out, but A.J. Pierzynski's RBI groundout would be all they could muster. Terrero fouled out and Fields struck out to end the threat.
Record: 27-35 |
Box score |
Play-by-play