Thursday's shenanigans were cheeky and fun. Tonight's shenanigans were cruel and tragic.
In another comedy of errors, tonight the White Sox managed to out-blunder the Blue Jays in a game neither team deserved to win.
Let's just run down a list of the weirdities:
1. Both of tonight's starters were unimpressive. Kyle Drabek and Mark Buehrle were both hit hard, especially in the early going, but the teams carried a 2-2 tie into the seventh inning. The two teams were a combined 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position.
2. Gordon Beckham had to leave the game during the third inning after Alex Rios' throw to second bounced off the turf and into Beckham's cheekbone. He went down in a heap, and the swelling was massive while Herm Schneider escorted him off the field.
3. The Blue Jays had a chance to add to a 2-1 lead in the fifth, but Yunel Escobar pulled back his bat on a suicide squeeze attempt, hanging Rajai Davis out to dry.
4. Rob Drake blew a call on a Rios "groundout" to short. Rios' foot hit the bag before the ball hit the first baseman's mitt. That could have been a rally, considering Toronto pitchers were terrified of Adam Dunn and walked him for a third time.
5. Actually, Dunn walked four times, one night after striking out four times.
6. Jayson Nix beat out what looked like a double play ball (Beckham might have made the turn, but Vizquel's throw didn't get there in time), and then came around to score on Yunel Escobar's double. It didn't help that Carlos Quentin and Rios reached the ball at the same time and ended up bumping into each other.
7. Buehrle threw 120 pitches over seven innings, working through 11 baserunners. He only struck out three batters, and two of them were Jose Bautista.
8. Drabek, meanwhile, walked five batters with four hits over 6 2/3 innings. He had trouble controlling his curve until the last two innings.
9. Jose Molina stole second base -- while Davis occupied it. A.J. Pierzynski made the mistake of throwing the ball to second instead of running Davis back to any base. While Pierzynski's throw wheezed its way to second, Davis pulled off the delayed steal of third.
10. Juan Pierre reached on an infield single, then advanced two bases on a wild pitch and passed ball. J.P. Arencibia had two of each on the day, as he really struggled behind the plate.
Pierre didn't end up scoring, though. Alexei Ramirez struck out and Quentin grounded out to end the game, and it was also the third straight inning where the Sox stranded a runner in scoring position.
It didn't help that Tony Pena added a run to the deficit with an unimpressive eighth. He allowed three hits, and needed a one-out Nix pop-up to prevent further damage. The lack of a third solid right-handed bullpen option could undermine the six-man rotation before any of the starters do.
Notes:
*Ramirez committed his ninth error of the season on a bad throw, but Buehrle pitched around it.
Record: 24-29 | Box score | Play-by-play