Tigers 4, White Sox 3: A return to normalcy

by Jim Margalus on Jul 17, 2011 3:27 PM CDT in White Sox Game Recaps

After the second inning, it looked like the second-half White Sox finally figured out how to consistently punish bad pitching. Brad Penny had little -- his curve floated -- and the Sox spanked him. Doubles by Adam Dunn and Alex Rios sandwiched a Carlos Quentin walk for the game's first run, and an A.J. Pierzynski sac fly and a Gordon Beckham single made it a 3-0 game. They hit all the batted balls squarely, and Penny wasn't fooling anybody.

Penny didn't pitch much better through the rest of the game, leaving lots of pitches up in the zone. Yet the Sox couldn't muster anything against Penny or the Tiger bullpen, which gave Detroit eight innings to make up ground against Phil Humber.

That they did. Humber recovered well enough from Brennan Boesch's solo homer in the fourth, but the Tigers came back to knock him out in the sixth. It started with an Alexei Ramirez error-turned-double (tough pick on a sinking liner, but it ramped off him and into shallow center) and a one-out walk to Magglio Ordonez.

Humber had the unenviable task of facing Miguel Cabrera with two on, but he attacked Cabrera with a great sequence. He threw his max fastball on the corners (ramping it up to 92 mph), and then threw a great slider to get a tapper to short. But Jim Leyland sent the runners to avoid the double play, and that paid off when Victor Martinez golfed a not-great curve into right field to tie the game.

A Jhonny Peralta single knocked Humber out of the game, and when Chris Sale came in, Carlos Guillen was ready. He took a first-pitch fastball into right field, and Carlos Quentin couldn't come up with it cleanly (he also bobbled Martinez's single), which allowed the go-ahead run to score.

Humber started much better than he finished, striking out the side in his first inning. But he could've used more help. The Sox only had one at-bat with a runner in scoring position with fewer than two outs after the second inning, and that was in the top of the ninth.

Record: 46-49 | Box score | Play-by-play

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After May 1st....

… I said “Win most of the series and everything will be just fine” Now, without some sweeps, the Sox are toast.

by LorenzoBandini on Jul 17, 2011 7:05 PM CDT reply actions

Hey

Weren’t you killed at Monte Carlo in the late 60’s?

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." - Mark Twain

by phastphil on Jul 18, 2011 12:25 AM CDT up reply actions

Penny said postgame that he had nothing and the Sox bailed him out swinging at pitches early in the count

"Fundamentals are a crutch for the talentless" Kenny Powers

by Duck99 on Jul 17, 2011 8:19 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

luckbox into 3rd place...

the fucking twins are …. the fucking twins.

by explodingpinwheelsforfunandprofit on Jul 18, 2011 1:23 AM CDT reply actions

I don't mind the Twins being relevant in this case.

Yes they are now on the Sox ass but a decent Twins team now provides opportunity when they clash with Cleveland and Detroit over the next 8 games.

"Rooting for the Twins is just a roundabout way of rooting for a first-round playoff bye for the Yankees." by big_fun

by Tdogg on Jul 18, 2011 9:54 AM CDT up reply actions

the only reason this graph is remarkable is

1) the divison leaders hve gone nowhere for the last, oh, 30 games or so
2) teh Sox are trending higher but at a weak pace
3) the royals make me sad (i have a soft spot for them, I grew-up on George Brett.)
4) the twins; the scourge of the AL central.

by explodingpinwheelsforfunandprofit on Jul 18, 2011 1:48 AM CDT reply actions

that's four only reasons, but yes.

FTT

"You go up there, against a dog-ass line up AND pitcher, and you don’t do a fucking thing with it. They whip your silly, sorry, saggy ass AGAIN, and you look like fucking bottom-ass, bitch-ass chumps doing it." - 2HA

by Shoeless In SC on Jul 18, 2011 6:46 AM CDT up reply actions