So much for splitting the series and saving some face, let alone preserving some hope that the season isn't over after the first week of September. What would normally be considered a successful road trip with the Sox bringing home a 7-3 record, feels more like a funeral march to Chicago.
Today's game was seemingly an extension of last night's defensive debacle. Teahen was rightly benched and Morel was given the start at 3B today, where he almost immediately picked up where Teahen left off, diving for and deflecting off his glove a playable grounder to Alexei in the 2nd inning.
Follow that with a bad throw from Q in what would become the longest 3rd inning ever, and suddenly the Sox were down 4-0 while simultaneously allowing Porcello to take a perfect game into the 4th.
Once again, it was Vizquel who broke up the flawless Detroit pitching, with a single to right. The next at-bat, Rios sent one to the seats in left field, to cut the Tigers' lead in half. However, the Sox offense stopped... about... there. The only additional run scored by the Sox was a gift - a wild pitch by Porcello that allowed Konerko to score in the 7th. A run that the Tigers answered in the bottom of the inning.
Sox offense managed a total of 4 hits on the game, while Floyd got dinged up by the Tigers offense, allowing 13 hits and 5 earned runs over 6 innings pitched. However, this loss was not entirely on Floyd. Even Alexei's defense was questionable in the 3rd inning today, as he made two consecutive throws to 1B; rather than throwing home to get the runner on the first one, and rather than throwing to 3rd to get Damon, the lead runner, on the second. Damon scored on the next at-bat.
Sloppy baseball and dead bats doth not a playoff team make.