Angels 4, White Sox 2: Abundance of deja vu

The White Sox bats were silenced by C.J. Wilson and the Angels capitalized on some shaky control by Jose Quintana to defeat the White Sox 4-2 and secure a series sweep.  The final score didn't resemble a blowout, but for most of the game, it sure felt like one.  The Angels had legitimate scoring threats in the majority of innings and the Sox didn't put a runner on second base until the eighth.  It felt like a hockey game in which the puck stayed in one team's zone pretty much the whole time.

Quintana struggled out of the gate, but didn't allow any runs in a 29-pitch first inning.  An Albert Pujols single and two near-misses on 3-2 counts to Howie Kendrick and David Freese loaded the bases for the Angels with one out, but Quintana coerced an infield fly out of Josh Hamilton and blew away C.J. Cron with a high fastball to end the threat.

Quintana didn't get off so easy the second time through the top of the lineup.  Kendrick led off the third inning with a single and after two outs, Quintana again walked David Freese to bring up Hamilton.  This time, Hamilton came through by turning on a high fastball and ripping it into right field.  Moises Sierra misread the ball as it was coming down and simply flailed at it with his glove as it went past him for a double.  Mike Trout scored on the play, giving the Angels a 1-0 lead.

The Angels once again threatened in the fifth inning when Kendrick and Trout opened the frame with back-to-back singles.  The infield fly was once again Quintana's friend, as Albert Pujols hit a high pop-up in foul territory.  Tyler Flowers and Paul Konerko didn't do a good job of communicating and even collided on the play, but Flowers managed to hold onto the ball.  After the obligatory walk to Freese, Hamilton came up yet again with the bases loaded and one out.  This time, he shot the ball on the ground past a diving Gordon Beckham for a two-run single.

The damage didn't stop there.  The Sox brought the infield in, which prevented Alexei Ramirez from snagging C.J. Cron's bouncer through the left side.  That cashed in Freese from third and chased Quintana from the game.  Javy Guerra inherited runners on first and third and did a great job putting out the fire by striking out Erick Aybar and Chris Iannetta.

Guerra stayed on the mound to pitch the sixth.  It was your typical Angels top-of-the-order inning in which some stuff happened, then David Freese walked, and Josh Hamilton batted with the bases loaded.  Guerra got Hamilton swinging on a beautiful low-and-away changeup to neutralize the threat.

On the other side of the ball, the White Sox Sunday lineup was unable to get much of anything going against C.J. Wilson.  The only ding on Wilson's line the first trip through the order was a walk to Paul Konerko. Gordon Beckham cancelled the postgame show in his second at-bat with a single up the middle, but he was quickly erased by a double-play ball off of the bat of Jose Abreu.  The Sox didn't put another runner on base until Beckham came up again and shot another single to center.  Abreu erased that one too with a double-play.

The Sox offense finally woke up in the eighth inning.  After a walk to Tyler Flowers, C.J. Wilson left to a standing ovation, giving way to the right-handed, side-arming Joe Smith.  With most of the White Sox lefties on the bench, this provided Robin Ventura with a good situation to make some subs. Alejandro De Aza was the first man to pinch-hit, and he smacked a double down the right field line.  Next, Conor Gillaspie came into the game and hit a high chopper off the plate that didn't come down in time for the Angels to make a play.  Adrian Nieto (who ran for Flowers) scored on the play.

Up next was Adam Eaton, and he hit a single up the middle to score De Aza.  That brought Gordon Beckham to the plate.  Beckham had the most success off of Wilson out of all the Sox hitters, but he didn't find Smith as much to his liking.  He grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to bring the comeback run to an abrupt halt.

The Sox had a chance to tie the game against Ernesto Frieri in the ninth inning after Dayan Viciedo hit a one-out double, but Frieri then blew away Alexei Ramirez.  Ventura called on Adam Dunn to try to tie it with one swing, but Mike Scioscia wasn't willing to chance it and had Frieri put Dunn on base.  Adrian Nieto was next to bat, and Frieri struck him out looking to end the game.

Bullet Points:

*Adam Eaton had a particularly ugly strikeout in the first inning.  On a 1-2 count, he attempted to bunt down the third base line and wasn't able to make contact.

*Leury Garcia showed off some range at third base in the third inning.  Mike Trout looked to have a seeing-eye single, but Garcia quickly sealed the hole in the left side and spun around to get the forceout at second base.

*Paul Konerko showed off his lack of range at first base in the fourth inning. Collin Cowgill hit a very soft line drive in foul territory that most first basemen would have caught.  Fortunately, giving Cowgill an extra life didn't do any harm.

*Josh Hamilton got to bat with a total of 11 runners on base over his four at-bats.

*Seriously, David Freese walked four times.

Record: 31-33 | Box Score | Play-by-play | Highlights