Tonight, it was a pleasure to watch Jon Garland pitch. And he did it almost entirely with his sinker.
Seven innings, seven hits, no walks, no home runs. The fastball was popping 91-93 m.p.h. on the Detroit feed's gun. He induced a couple of key double plays. He held what baserunners he allowed in check.
Perhaps what was most impressive is that he tossed a couple of innings so quick that he might have made Mark Buehrle jealous. He used only 16 pitches in the fourth and fifth innings combined.
And when the only damage comes on a couple of singles by Detroit's best hitters -- Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen -- it's hard to expect Garland to throw any better. In fact, outside of a Guillen double down the right field line (on which Jermaine Dye pulled a quad muscle), the Tigers really didn't hit one ball hard.
Considering Garland's recent track record (6.91 ERA over his last 10 starts), such a quality outing might normally register as the strangest occurrence of the night.
Not this game, however. Not when the Sox score two runs thanks to a Paul Konerko infield single and Alex Cintron's first homer of the year. Konerko hit a weak grounder to second, but Guillen, a relative newcomer to first base, couldn't find the bag when retreating to cover first. Then Cintron turned on a Jeremy Bonderman fastball just hard enough for it to bounce off the top of the fence, caroming off the protective railing in front of the seats before bouncing back onto the field.
Perhaps the evening of weirdness explains Bobby Jenks' rockiest outing
in a month and a half. He lost Brandon Inge on a borderline 3-2 fastball for his first walk since
July 7, and then pinch-hitting Sean Casey took a 1-2 fastball back up the middle to put two runners on. Pinch-running Cameron Maybin stole second, but Jenks struck out Curtis Granderson with a low, inside slider to end the game.
What wasn't unusual was the way the Sox scored their first run, when Josh Fields took a first-pitch slider over the left-center wall for his 18th homer of the season.
Record: 59-79 |
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