After today's game, the question shouldn't be why the Sox felt it was necessary to
extend Ozzie Guillen another four years. Rather, people should be asking themselves why Ozzie would want to stick around.
Juan Uribe was the only one who had Paul Byrd figured out, going profundo! twice and driving in all three runs. Otherwise, it was another quiet night offensively, although nobody could blame the weather this time.
The kids tested his patience. John Danks couldn't find the strike zone and couldn't finish the fourth inning. Andy Gonzalez failed in their best chance to get back in the game, striking out with runners on second and third and nobody out. Gonzalez, Donny Lucy and Jerry Owens went 8-9-1, and each committed a defensive gaffe.
Continuing the miserable stretch of defense from the third base position, Gonzalez fielded a hard-hit grounder cleanly with Jason Michaels on third. Michaels was running on contact, and clearly expected to be out at home to the point that he stopped and looked back 10 feet from home plate -- and Gonzalez hadn't even thrown the ball. He had Michaels out by plenty, but opted double-clutched and then ultimately decided against going home. He went to first instead, and a run came in.
Michaels' play was preceded by an errant throw by Lucy. He blocked a ball in the dirt well, but Michaels ran anyway. A good throw would've had Michaels out by plenty, but he skipped it instead. Owens, meanwhile, overran a high, deep flyball to the left-center gap and turned it into a two-run ground rule double.
The only bright spots were the performances by Lance Broadway and Heath Phillips. Matt Thornton, who was awful and walked in a run, allowed Broadway's only run to score over 2 2/3 innings, and he got some swings and misses, striking out four.
Phillips, meanwhile, cleaned up for a wild Mike MacDougal (who also walked in a run), closing it out with 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Nothing impressive, and he allowed a few solidly hit balls, but he didn't waste anybody's time.
Phillips and Broadway threw 82 pitches over five innings. That might seem like a lot, until you consider that Danks, MacDougal and Thornton threw 127 over the other four.
Record: 61-84 |
Box score |
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