Red Sox 10, White Sox 1: Hernandez gets clobbered in debut

For some reason, the White Sox staff decided that Jose Quintana, Jake Peavy and Chris Sale absolutely needed an extra day so they called up Pedro Hernandez for a spot start today. Hernandez was the 9th rookie to pitch for the Sox this year and the 10th player to start a game for the good guys. Given all of that, the results were what you would expect.

Paul Konerko, who was playing in his 2,000th game as a White Sox, gave Hernandez an early 1-0 lead with a run scoring single in the first.

After that, it was all Red Sox. Adrian Gonzalez tied the game up in the first with a run scoring single of his own. After a scoreless 2nd, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford led off the third with soft singles. Cody Ross followed with a long fly ball that stayed just fair to give Boston the 4-1 lead. In the 4th, Ross decided to do it again, hitting another three run dinger over the monster. Gonzalez made it back to back shots with a homer to left of his own giving the Red Sox an 8-1 lead.

Meanwhile, the White Sox offense went dormant. After three singles in the first inning, the boys only managed one more hit on the evening- a Dayan Viciedo third inning single. Felix Doubront and co. had the game on cruise control the rest of the night.

The Red Sox managed two more runs in the 6th on another Gonzalez single off of Hector Santiago, who pitched three innings.

With the Tigers and Indians winning, the Sox lead shrinks back to 2 1/2 games.

* Leyson Septimo threw a perfect inning after his debacle on Monday night.

* It was bench clearing day as Tyler Flowers, Eduardo Escobar, Jordan Danks and Orlando Hudson all saw action. None of them got on base.

* Hernandez was optioned back to Charlotte after the game.

* The decision to start Hernandez puts some serious pressure on Quintana, Peavy and Sale. Ventura basically punted this game away in order to give those guys an extra day of rest. Hopefully they take advantage of it.

Record: 50-41| Box