End It Like Beckham

With the loss of Friday night's game behind the Sox, they decided they wouldn't allow the Cubs to take advantage of them again offensively.  Everyone came out swinging and hitting, especially Scott Podsednik.  With the second game in front of the Sox and Cubs, it was off to the races from the very beginning, but unlike Friday's game which featured 4 combined home runs, the runs were produced through small ball today.

With the pitching matchup of Dempster vs. Buehrle, it looked to be a great matchup. However, in the first inning, Sox drew first blood in the bottom half when Podsednik led the inning off with a double to deep left and Alexei Ramirez sacrificed himself to move Podsednik over to third.  With Dye on a tear lately, he proved once again how valuable he was by doubling to deep left to drive in Podesednik.

In the second, the Cubs made themselves look even worse as Buehrle got Jake Fox to fly out to center and struck out Soto and Freel.  In the bottom half, the Sox struck once again for another run after DeWayne Wise drew a walk with two out and then stole second while Podsednik was in the box.  Podsednik came through in the clutch by singling to right to bring Wise home.  End of the 2nd, Sox up 2-0.

After 2 shutout innings, Buehrle gave up his first runs of the day, yet they remained unearned because of two errors, one by Gordon Beckham and the next by Alexei Ramirez.  Beckham committed a throwing error trying to throw out Andres Blanco, so Blanco made it to second with one out.  Soriano flew out and it looked like Buehrle was going to be able to get out of the jam with the lead intact.  Unfortunately, Theriot singled to center and drove in Blanco.  With 2 outs, Bradley hit one towards Alexei Ramirez who committed a fielding error.  With two outs still, Derrek Lee singled to left which pushed Theriot across home.  Buehrle finally got out of the inning with Fox flying out to center again.  After 3 innings, game tied at 2.

In the 5th, Soriano led off with a single and Theriot followed that up with a walk.  With two on and no outs, Buehrle hurt himself by balking when he went to throw to first.  This moved Soriano to third and Theriot to second.  Bradley smacked a ball to Ramirez but caught it for the first out and Lee hit a sac fly to center which drove in Soriano.  This was one of the many lead changes throughout this game.  In the bottom half, the Sox refused to lay down as they brought out their big bats.  After a Wise flyout, Podsednik stepped up and hit a home run that just went over the fence in right.  The bases did not stay empty as Ramirez singled to right center, Thome drew a walk, and Konerko was hit by a pitch that seemed to hit the SOX symbol on his batting helmet.  With a similar situation from Friday, A.J. Pierzynski came up with bases loaded and came through with a single to right, which drove in Ramirez and Thome.  After 5 full innings, Sox lead 5-3.

During the sixth, the Cubs refused to give up.  After getting two outs, Buehrle walked Fukudome and gave up a single to Blanco.  D.J. Carrasco replaced Buehrle and inherited runners at 1st and 2nd.  Carrasco then gave up a 2 run double to Soriano and a 1 run single to Theriot.  In the bottom half, Podsednik continued his great day by driving in Wise after he tripled to deep center.  After 6 full innings, the game was tied once again, 6-6.

In the 8th, Alexei Ramirez continued his defensive troubles by committing another throwing error on an easy play on Ryan Freel.  Aaron Poreda replaced Carrasco and ended up giving a single to Fukudome and a run after Blanco grounded out to Ramirez and pushed a run across.  Ramirez threw to Konerko, who then threw to A.J. hoping to turn the double play and keep the run from scoring, but Konerko's throw was a second late.  In the bottom half, Marmol took over for the Cubs and Beckham led off with bloop single to very shallow left field, just out of Ryan Freel's reach.  Wise then sacrificed to first and Podsednik's perfect day finally came to an end when he flew out to center (but hey 4-5 ain't bad).  With 2 outs, Ramirez came up to the plate and made up for the earlier errors by when he singled to left and drove in Beckham.  After 8, the game is once again tied, 7-7.

In the ninth, Bobby Jenks replaced Dotel and had a quick 1-2-3 inning by striking out Lee, getting Fox to fly out to center once again, and striking out Soto.  Things were looking good for the Sox and they only got better.  In the bottom of the ninth, Sean Marshall came out of the bullpen for the Cubs to face Thome, Konerko, and AJ.  Thome flew out and Konerko singled to left, which put the winning run on 1st.  Fields was then put in to pinch run for Konerko.  AJ ended up grounding out to third, which put Fields on second with 2 outs.  Things were looking scary for the win without extra innings.  With Getz coming up to bat, Jayson Nix took his spot and ended up drawing a walk from Jose Ascanio.  Gordon Beckham came up to bat with 2 on and 2 out and he proved to the White Sox organization why he will remain in the lineup.  On a first pitch 4 seam fastball, Beckham hit it to right field and drove in Josh Fields to end the game with a White Sox win, 8-7.

Even though Beckham drove in the winning run, I would have to make Scott Podsednik the player of the game as he went 4-5, with 3 RBI's and 2 runs scored, while being just a triple short of the cycle.  Tomorrow's rubber match features Carlos Zambrano (4-2; 3.48 ERA) and John Danks (5-6; 4.43 ERA).  This will be the deciding match everyone is looking forward to, especially to see who will take the momentum into the last game of the Crosstown Rivalry in September.