Konerko Makes It A Hat Trick

After losing 2 straight to the Royals and having a day off on Monday, the Sox were looking to make a run with only 6 games left before the All Star break, and that is what they did.  Mark Beuhrle took the mound today to face Cleveland's Jeremy Sowers.  Konerko carried this game on his back and the big bat he brought to the ball park today.  Konerko ended up connecting for 3 homers off of 3 different pitchers on the night.

In this game, the Cleveland Indians drew first blood in the very first inning when Grady Sizemore homered to deep right field after Asdrubal Cabrera grounded out to second baseman Jayson Nix.  Konerko ended up tying the game in the 2nd, when he crushed a 2-0 fastball to left center field, his first of the night. 

The Indians took the lead once again in the top of the 4th.  It led off with Victor Martinez grounding out to Gordon Beckham and Shin-Soo Choo doubling to center field.  Buehrle got a little help when Jhonny Peralta popped out to A.J. Pierzynski in foul territory but unfortunately, he still suffered some damage after Travis Hafner singled to left driving in Choo, but was then tagged out at second when he tried stretching  his single into a double.  In the bottom half of the 4th, the Sox went 3 up, 3 down.

In the 6th, the Indians kept piling on the runs and plated one more run when Shin-Soo Choo hit a solo home run to deep center field with 2 outs.  Buehrle got out of the inning with Jhonny Peralta grounding out to third baseman Gordon Beckham.  The Sox finally got the big inning they were looking for in the bottom half of the 6th.  The 6th inning started out the same way as it did the last time the Sox faced Jeremy Sowers.  Scott Podsednik grounded out to third baseman Jhonny Peralta, but Alexei Ramirez hit a line drive double to center field.  Dye followed suit and hit a single over to left field.  Thome worked himself into a deep count and was able to draw a walk off of Jeremy Sowers to load the bases.  With Konerko on deck, Eric Wedge was not going to allow Sowers face Konerko again, so he brough in reliever Chris Perez, who hit two batters the last time he faced the White Sox.  That made little difference when Paul Konerko once again hit a 2-0 fastball out of the park, this time for a grand slam and to left field.  This put the Sox up 5-3, but the scoring didn't end there.  A.J. Pierzynski ended up popping out to Peralta for the second out, but Jayson Nix singled to center and was then driven in by Gordon Beckham on a double to center field.  At the end of the 6th, the Sox led 6-3.

The Indians faced Buehrle for the last time in the 7th and went 3 up, 3 down.  Buehrle struck out Travis Hafner and Jamey Carroll to bring his K total to 3 for the night.  The Sox, however, refused to follow in the footsteps of the Indians.  Winston Abreu replaced Chris Perez in the 7th and led off the inning by walking Scott Podsednik.  With Alexei Ramirez batting, Scott Podsednik stole his 13th base of the season, but didn't matter as Ramirez smacked a high fly ball to left field for his 11th home run this year and 42nd RBI, which puts him on track to hopefully tie his 22 home run season he had last year and set a career high in RBI's, hopefully breaking 80 this year.  It didn't stop there even though Dye struck out swinging.  Jim Thome was able to reach base as he singled to left field and Konerko drove him in when he homered for the third and final time of the night, pulling off the hat trick.  That made it 3 home runs and 7 RBI's on the night.  After Abreu gave up the home run, ex-White Sox pitcher Tomo Ohka came in to replace Winston Abreu.  Ohka came in and got Pierzynski and Nix to fly out to center and pop out to first, respectively. 

In the 8th, D.J. Carrasco took Buehrle's spot on the mound.  Unfortunately, he allowed a walk to Ben Francisco.  With no outs, Asdrubal Cabrera grounded into a possible double play, but the Sox only got Ben Francisco out at 2nd.  With Cabrera at 1st, Sizemore took his spot at the plate and hit a 2-run homer to right field to make the score 10-5, White Sox still leading.  After giving up the home run, Aaron Poreda replaced D.J. Carrasco.  Poreda got out of the ending with only giving up one walk to Shin-Soo Choo.  After the 8th, Sox still led 10-5.

In the 9th, the Indians tried getting the rally going as Travis Hafner led off the inning with a single to left field off of Aaron Poreda.  Poreda then got Garko to ground out to Paul Konerko, the man of the night.  With 1 out, Jamey Carroll finally got his first hit of the night when he singled to left field and drove in Travis Hafner.  Carroll ended up being stranded on base since Poreda was able to cause Ben Francisco to hit a soft pop fly to Jayson Nix at second and strike out Asdrubal Cabrera to end the game.  With tonight's game, Konerko brought his average to .301, above .300 for the first time since June 1st. 

The Sox (now 3 games above .500 at 43-40) will face the Indians (now 33-51) again tomorrow at 7:11 pm at U.S. Cellular Field.  Jose Contreras (3-2; 2.18 ERA since coming back from the minors) will be taking the ball for the Sox to face Aaron Laffey (3-1; 3.93 ERA) of the Indians.  Aaron Laffey has been good against the Sox in his past, sporting a 2-1 record in 3 games started and has a 3.10 ERA to show for it.  Contreras has very similar numbers to Laffey in his career versus the Cleveland Indians.  Contreras has started in 13 games and has a 6-2 with a 3.15 ERA.  The last time Contreras faced the Indians this year, he had a great game where he went 8.0 innings, gave up 2 earned runs on 5 hits, while walking 1 and striking out 8.  He will be looking for another W to add to his total for the year and work his way back to .500 after the horrible start he had to the season.