Sure, Matt Thornton was tagged with the loss after giving up the go-ahead homer to Dan Uggla in the ninth and another run came in to score a few batters later.
But this one is pinned on the offense. After jumping on Dontrelle Willis to the tune of four runs on three hits, Sox hitters called it a night, for all intents and purposes. They added an unearned run in the second when Andy Gonzalez made it to second on an error, got to third on Tadahito Iguchi's grounder and scored on Paul Konerko's sac fly, and that was it.
Maybe it would've been better for Ozzie Guillen to start Bobby Jenks in the ninth inning, but he can only throw two, maybe three innings. That wouldn't have been enough, because you have to figure it would maybe take until the 17th or 18th inning for the Marlins to start putting position players on the mound.
Until the ninth, the bullpen had actually done a decent job, all things considered. Ryan Bukvich gave up the lead with a solo homer to Josh Willingham, a deep drive to center sandwiched between two slightly lesser drives to center, but other than that, the relief corps actually survived. David Aardsma working a scoreless (albeit scary) two innings of work, and between he, Bukvich and Thornton, it wasn't a disaster. One run over four innings would be acceptable under every other set of circumstances.
It could've been worse considering John Danks couldn't retire a batter in the fifth. He actually pitched better than his line -- outside of a hanger to Hanley Ramirez that capped off a three-run first, his changeup was his best pitch. He struck out seven and only walked one, and kept the ball down, but he just gave up too many hits -- and thus, too many pitches.
Record: 29-38 |
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