These White Sox aren't winning enough to be called the "winning" anything, but if I had to assign an adjective to their victories, I would choose "painful" over "ugly."
Then again, painful victories over good teams (like the Texas Rangers) and good pitchers (Alexi Ogando) still feel pretty good in the end.
This time, Alex Rios -- who replaced Carlos Quentin after a first-inning injury -- came up with the big hit off Koji Uehara, drilling a double to left field off that scored a pinch-running Brent Lillibridge from first.
It was vindication for Rios, who entered the game for boos after Carlos Quentin injured his shoulder during a diving catch for the first out of the game. Unfortunately, Rios has a habit of bursting his own balloon, and tonight was no different.
One batter later, Rios ended up halfway between third and home on a pop-up that was caught by shortstop Omar Quintanilla after miscommunication with the left-fielder. Quintanilla had his back to the plate and tumbled after a collision, so Rios would have been able to tag up on it. He chose to bet that nobody would catch it, and so the Sox failed to score an insurance run.
Adam Dunn, the other Pact Partner, dropped a not-great throw by Brent Morel on a routine grounder to put the tying run on base with one out in the ninth. That runner eventually reached second, but Sergio Santos pitched over it with a pair of strikeouts to end the game.
The Sox made a habit of picking up each other all night long.
In the first inning, Alex Rios struck out with runners on the corners and one out. Alexei Ramirez was able to drop a single over the head of Quintanilla to tie the game at 1. One inning later, Ozzie Guillen called on Brent Morel to bunt Tyler Flowers to third ater a leadoff double. That meant that Guillen counted on the struggling Gordon Beckham to drive him in. Beckham struck out, but Juan Pierre cashed in the run with a single just like Ramirez's.
The Rangers tied the game in the top of the third on Kinsler's second homer, but Kinsler problems aside, John Danks pitched well. He allowed seven hits (three by Kinsler) with no walks over seven innings, striking out five. He didn't have many difficult innings, although Flowers helped him in the fourth. Nelson Cruz hit a one-out double, but when he tried to steal third, Flowers made a perfect throw to clear the bases.
Record: 62-63 | Box score | Play-by-play