The White Sox ended their road trip the way it started. They got destroyed. The Sox went 0-5 on the road trip that also saw two games halted due to riots, illness spreading through the clubhouse and an offense that can't score. They were outscored 39-10 in the five games and they still haven't hit a home run since the first inning on April 22nd.
John Danks forgot to cover first base in the second inning, but was able to get out of the jam. When he did the same thing in the third, he wasn't as lucky. Brian Dozier and Torii Hunter each singled to start the third. Joe Mauer then hit a ground ball down the line that Adam LaRoche made a great play on. Danks hesitated to cover first and then botched LaRoche's flip to load the bases. Trevor Plouffe followed with a liner into the left field seats for a grand slam. After a fly out and two more singles, Chris Herrmann hit a chopper in front of the mound and Danks turned and fired into the dirt at second and Alexei Ramirez couldn't handle it. Danny Santana followed with a grounder that LaRoche missed (somehow it wasn't ruled an error) that lead to two more runs. That ended Danks day. Scott Carroll came in and gave up another RBI single before getting a double play to end the inning. When the smoke cleared, seven runs had scored and White Sox fans everywhere changed the channel.
The ugliness continued in the fourth inning. After a double by Mauer and a single by Plouffe, Micah Johnson made a beautiful diving play. Unfortunately, he fired it into left field for an error. Oswaldo Arcia and Herrmann had RBI singles and then the little league play continued when Geovanny Soto couldn't coral a pitch in the dirt, he recovered the ball and the runner stopped, but Soto threw to Dan Jennings covering home anyway and lofted it over his head allowing the runner to trot home.
The Sox had chances early to get on the board, but it didn't happen. Jose Abreu grounded into a double play in the first. After two singles to lead off the second, Alexei Ramirez grounded into a double play and Gordon Beckham grounded to third to end the threat. The Sox had two men on in the third but couldn't score.
They finally broke threw with two runs in the fourth when after the Twins long bottom of the third, Mike Pelfrey lost control. He walked LaRoche, Avisail Garcia singled and he plunked Alexei to load the bases with nobody out. After a Beckham strikeout, Soto and Johnson were each hit with a pitch to give us our two runs before Ryan Pressly retired J.B. Shuck and Melky Cabrera to end the threat.
The Sox would scratch again in the eighth, and this time on a hit! Abreu led off with a single and Conor Gillaspie hit a chopper to first that Kennys Vargas fired to second to start another double play...but Danny Santana missed the ball putting men on first and third with nobody out. Garcia cashed in Abreu with a single, but three fly outs ended the inning. In the ninth, Emilio Bonifacio fittingly grounded into a double play to end the game.
If we are looking for positives, Garcia had three more hits and his hit streak is at nine games. Zach Duke and David Robertson continued to throw well and we have an off day tomorrow. Thank goodness.
Record: 8-14 | Box