2008 State of the Sox

August 19: White Sox 5, Mariners 0

Tonight ... Clayton Richard considers himself... the luckiest man ... on the face of the Earth.

After getting "hit hard" to "slaughtered" before the fifth inning in each of his first three outings, the Michigan lefty somehow managed to hold the Mariners scoreless over six innings for his first major-league win. 

He didn't exactly make it look easy, but Lady Luck was with him from the first inning on.  He put himself in an early jam when he knocked down an Ichiro Suzuki comebacker, then rushed it and threw it away, giving Ichiro a two-base error.

Miguel Cairo got him to third with a grounder to the right side, but Nick Swisher prevented him from scoring.  Raul Ibanez hit a chopper to first near the bag, and Swisher gloved it, stpeped on the base before throwing home in time for A.J. Pierzynski to apply the tag on Ichiro for a rare 3-2 double play.

Richard calmed down after that, and against all odds, ended up having a much easier night than Felix Hernandez.  He allowed five hits and a walk, although numerous hard-hit balls were turned into outs.  Nevertheless, he avoided hitting the wall and nobody can take that away from him.

On the other hand, the Sox worked over King Felix.  He threw 81 pitches over the first four innings, and the only thing that stopped his outing from being a complete disaster were two double play balls.  The Sox countered the DPs with two homers, with Nick Swisher and Jim Thome leading off the fourth and fifth innings with solo shots.

Among the other fine performances:

• A.J. Pierzynski: A three-hit game, with his line-drive swing working.
• Carlos Quentin:  Went 2-for-3 with a walk and stole third on Hernandez with a big jump, leading to a run.
• Alexei Ramirez:  Two singles with runners in scoring position, one of them scoring a run.

Record: 72-53 | Box score | Play-by-play