When Orlando Cabrera took three balls out of the strike zone, then took two strikes down the pipe before going down swinging in the game's first at-bat, it became clear that the Sox had every intention of letting Gio Gonzalez dig his own grave.
The plan apparently worked, as the former Sox farmhand's inability to find a strike zone spelled a short outing, as he hit the showers after only 3 1/3 innings.
He began the second by walking Jim Thome and Paul Konerko. Thome would advance on a deep flyball by Ken Griffey Jr., and score on a Gonzalez wild pitch for the game's first run. He nearly got out of the inning when Alexei Ramirez chopped out to short (on a nice play by Bobby Crosby), but Juan Uribe flexed his muscles and showed the homer hands for a 3-0 lead.
That was only the beginning of Gio's troubles. A.J. Pierzynski shot one through the box leading off the third, and Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye would follow up with back-to-back jacks to double the Sox's lead.
Quentin spelled the end of his day in the fourth, lining a single to center for a 8-0 lead, four of those coming via CQ's bat, and that would be plenty for Javier Vazquez.
Vazquez followed up his best start of the season against Kansas City with an outing to rival it. He retired 21 of the first 23 batters he faced, allowing just a pair of harmless singles over the first six innings. The only A's run came thanks in part to a misplay by Dewayne Wise, who got a late break on Cliff Pennington's shallow fly to right, missed on the dive and played it into a double. Daric Barton's two-out single spoiled the shutout.
Fortunately, it only cut the lead to a dozen, as an Alexei Ramirez grand slam in the seventh put the game out of reach if it wasn't already.
Record: 70-53 |
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