Dodgers 6, White Sox 4 (10 innings): Santos picks bad time to falter

by Jim Margalus on May 21, 2011 12:14 AM CDT in White Sox Game Recaps

Sergio Santos wasn't going to carry a 0.00 ERA forever. Sox fans just hoped that when his perfection would end, it would come in a low-leverage situation.

And not like tonight, on a solo homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and a one-run lead.

Santos made one mistake to Russ Mitchell -- a 2-1 fastball that split the plate -- and Mitchell hooked it around the foul pole to tie the game at 3. He then made a bunch of mistakes in the 10th inning as the Sox's three-game winning streak was snapped in a painful fashion.

Facing the top of the Dodgers' order in the 10th, Santos found himself in trouble quickly. Jamey Carroll singled, Andre Ethier lined out on a rope to Alex Rios, and Matt Kemp smashed a single through the left side to put runners on the corners with one out.

Santos appeared to have caught a break. Coming to the plate was AAAA journeyman middle infielder Juan Castro, who entered the game for Juan Uribe. Uribe made a run-saving diving catch in the third, but had to leave the game due to a strained hip flexor. Castro took his place.

Now, Castro was 0-for-6 on the year, and it showed in his earlier at-bat against Jesse Crain. Crain faced Castro with the bases loaded and one out, attempting to clean up Matt Thornton's mess, and Castro struck out rather pathetically. He stepped in the bucket every time, and his feet slid around like he was afraid of getting plunked.

It looked like there was no way that Castro could make contact with anything over the heart of the plate and points outside. Sure enough, even though Crain through a hanging slider that ended up over the middle, Castro's bail-out swing had no chance against it.

That's all Sergio Santos had to do when facing Castro with runners on the corners and the game tied in the 10th. So what does he do? He misses inside, just about over the chalk of the batter's box -- the only pitch that Castro could hit with that approach. Castro dropped a single over the head of Paul Konerko to give the Dodgers the lead, and after a hanging slider resulted in an RBI double by James Loney, the Dodgers had a 5-3 lead.

Jay Gibbons added one more run when he singled on a hanging Will Ohman slider, and the insurance run helped, because the Sox offense woke up after seven innings of zeroes.

Omar Vizquel and Juan Pierre led off the 10th with singles off Matt Guerrier. Alexei Ramirez almost made it three in a row, but Mitchell(!) robbed him with a diving stab to his left. You could call that bad luck, but then again, if Mitchell wasn't guarding the line, it would've been a 5-4-3 double play. Instead, he could only get the force at first, and the tying run still stood at the plate.

Don Mattingly called for Scott Elbert to face Adam Dunn. Dunn swung at the first pitch, hit a hard grounder right at Loney for the second out. Vizquel scored on the play, but that would be it for the Sox, as new pitcher and Old Friend Mike MacDougal got Paul Konerko to ground out to second to end the game.

Phil Humber deserved a better fate than a no-decision. He gave up a two-run homer to Kemp in the first inning, and very little afterward. He lowered his staff-best ERA to 3.10 after allowing two runs on five hits and a walk over seven innings.

Then again, Ted Lilly had the same kind of night on the other side. The Sox put together a helluva two-out flurry in the second, stringing together five straight hits after Lilly retired the first five batters. Ramon Castro hit a run-scoring ground-rule double, and Gordon Beckham teed up a hanging curve for a two-run homer, giving the Sox a 3-2 lead.

But Lilly eventually got wise to the fact that his curve was a meatball, and he dropped it in favor of his change. Outside of Uribe's catch, the Sox never mounted a serious threat until the 10th.

Notes:

*Alex Rios made a fine running catch on the warning track in left-center. Great read, great speed, caught it standing up -- it might've been his best catch of the year.

*Konerko had a good day when it came to digging out low throws.

Record: 20-26 | Box score | Play-by-play

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Comments

the good news is Humber could be a solid cheap starter

for us next year

I hope Kotsay gets hit by a dump truck and slips into a coma where he is stuck forever in Baseball purgatory having to bat against a three-headed, six-armed Lefty Hydra consisting of Billy Wagner, Damaso Marte, and Randy Johnson. - Shoeless In SC

by blackoutsox on May 21, 2011 12:45 AM CDT reply actions

"You picked a bad time to leave me....'

"I kind of thought it was a Pussy Pitch" - Kenwo, on the changeup

by DrEmilioLizardo on May 21, 2011 1:11 AM CDT reply actions

I suppose it had to happen at some point

But it’s still not fun to see Santos finally give up a run at the wrong time (as if there was going to be a right time once he took over 9th inning closing duties).

Enjoy the methup, all. Hopefully next year I’ll be on here enough in the offseason to notice the signup and get in on it — my wife has actually enjoyed my internet sports fan meetups full of dudes, having had a good inaugural run with a Deadspin “pants party” with me in ‘07 or ’08 when Leitch was still in charge and participated (and sang Last Caress with live band karaoke at the afterparty at the now-defunct Pontiac — I had a hand in organizing the bar parties for the weekends of those gatherings and we had a blast). Oh for the days when Deadspin had invite-only comments and wasn’t about athlete dick pictures.

Guess this year we had to settle for being in Bridgeport tonight at a beer/art/whatever thing at Maria’s and the Co-Prosperity Sphere. The neighborhood really has some great bars.

by Yinka Double Dare on May 21, 2011 4:21 AM CDT reply actions

um

mitchell got the force at first

"Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.'"

by U-God on May 21, 2011 6:44 AM CDT reply actions

Is SoxMachine still open?

I have this T-shirt with it’s Website address. The guy was a beast about accuracy.

And despite his prodigious, powerful display,Battling loneliness, rage, misery
There really isn’t much else left to say.

by winningugly on May 21, 2011 7:19 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

Last night's Santos' performance reminds me of

watching a weekly TV series when I was young called Sea Hunt. Mike Nelson (Lloyd Bridges) was a Florida scuba diver who weekly dove to find / investigate customers’ buried treasure, sunken boat, whatever. Every week, Mike would be in the deep sea trying to figure out what was the scoop on the one of the aforementioned customer problems. As Mike circled the the boat or treasure, soft, soothing symphony music played. Little fishies swam by on our black and white TV screen. the sound of air bubbles escaping from his scuba gear was a constant. Week after week, Mike coolly described the problem and how he would solve it.

Every single week, at a point about 2/3 of the way into the show, the scriptwriters had Mike utter the foreboding phrase “AND THEN IT HAPPENED.” A bad guy in a black rubber suit entered the picture from one of the corners of our 12" TV brandishing a long, very sharp looking knife.The symphony music became faster paced and very tense. There was an intense underwater skirmish. Mike’s airhose was cut. Every two or three weeks there was (black and white) blood in the water. It looked ugly for the good guys. But justice always prevailed. Mike was back the next week, in the deep sea, fighting and winning the good fight (with almost the exact same fucking script).

My serenity is inversely proportional to my expectations.

LET’S GO HAWKS!!!!!

by ballyb on May 21, 2011 6:45 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs