Mark Buehrle had a terrible first inning, Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye combined to strand a small FLDS family, and Paul Konerko chipped in with some terrible first base defense to hand the Sox their first blowout loss since a May 7th 13-1 drubbing at the hands of the Twins.
Buehrle's first inning was his worst of the year--which is saying something with the way his season has gone so far--because all of the damage was self-inflicted. His previous big innings featured bloops and poor defense, but this one was all about Buehrle's lack of control. After allowing a 1-out double to score on a wild pitch (which should have been blocked by Toby Hall) and sacrifice fly, Buehlre sandwiched a single with a pair of walks to load the bases. He then fell behind Franklin Gutierrez 2-1, and threw him a Get Me Over changeup that flew 400+ unhappy feet.
The game essentially ended there. Sure, the Sox still had 24 outs remaining to make up the 5-run deficit, but the Sox offense hasn't put together a big comeback (for victory) all season. It was no different Tuesday night.
A Team in Turmoil!
That's what the headline reads on the Tribune's baseball blog. I doubt the Sox are truly a team in turmoil, but they certainly have a number of distracting stories circling about.
- First, there is the Orlando Cabrera calling the press box issue...
- which was followed by Ozzie Guillen saying that it might become an issue with some in the clubhouse...
- which might have sparked a rift between Guillen and Cabrera..
- which required a comment from GM Kenny Williams.
- which led to Cabrera issuing an embargo against the Sun-Times.
- Oh, and Octavio Dotel had to be physically restrained from getting into a pre-game altercation with strength coach Allen Thomas.