See, these are the White Sox we thought we'd see more often: Solid starting pitching, giving an effective bullpen a short night with enough offense to get the job done.
Garland allowed 10 hits over 7 1/3 innings, but he scattered them for the most part. He was hurt the only time they bunched up -- a situation that started out as a runner on first with two outs snowballed into a three-run inning for Toronto as Frank Thomas doubled, Aaron Hill scored Thomas from second on a single, and then Matt Stairs capped it off with a single.
Of course, Garland could have been out of the inning had Scott Podsednik not taken his eye off the ball -- or had a throwing arm. Thomas hit one of his trademark rainmakers to deep left, but Podsednik stopped tracking the ball in order to climb the fence. Little did he know that wasn't necessary, because had he just stood next to the wall, it would've fallen into his mitt. Instead, he got turned around, the ball bounced off the fence, and Thomas ended up with a double.
Thomas then scored on a roped single to left because Pods couldn't hit the cutoff man on the fly. Thomas slid in safely a split second ahead of Pierzynski's tag. Three runs scored because of Pods' misplay, including two as a direct result.
Fortunately, that fourth inning would be the only one in which Toronto would score. Garland kept the Blue Jays at bay otherwise, thanks to the return of his control. While he gave up a number of well-hit flyballs, they didn't hurt him, mainly because he only walked one over his outing. While he threw 114 pitches, 78 went for strikes.
The Sox offense scuffled a little in the earlygoing after Jermaine Dye's second-inning solo shot. Josh Fields struck out with runners on the corners with one out in the fourth, but Juan Uribe would pick his teammates up over the next two innings.
In the fifth, he beat out a dribbler to third for an infield single to lead off the inning and moved to second on a wild pitch. He barely got to third tagging late on a medium-range flyball to center, thanks to Royce Clayton not cutting off the throw. Jerry Owens blew his second straight RBI bunt attempt, popping out to Josh Towers, but Alex Cintron jamshot dropped just inside the third base line over the head of Troy Glaus to score Uribe to cut the lead to 3-2.
Uribe then came up huge in the sixth, smoking a two-run double down the left-field line with two outs on the first pitch relief pitcher Bryan Tallet threw, giving the Sox a 4-3 lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Garland pitched out a two-on, one-out jam in the seventh, and then Ehren Wassermann stranded a runner by retiring the two batters he faced. He ended the eighth by coming back from down 3-0 to induce a routine flyout off the bat of Aaron Hill. Bobby Jenks pitched a perfect ninth for his 29th save.
Record: 47-56 |
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