Tuesday, April 12, 2011

155

You're not going to win many games when you score only one run (only five 1-0 wins over the last five seasons for the White Sox) but the Sox had a great chance to do precisely that last night against the A's.  Unfortunately, they blew it.
Mark Buehrle faced off against fellow perfect-game pitcher, Dallas Braden, and out-pitched him.  Buehrle threw 8.0 innings of shutout ball, allowing just two hits and a walk.  With a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Brent Lillibridge home run, maybe Ozzie should have sent Buhrle out to the mound in the ninth, but instead Matt Thornton -- who had blown two and saved none up to that point -- took the hill. 
Thornton served up a leadoff double and then watched in horror as Juan Pierre dropped a fly ball -- for the second time this young season.  Oakland tied the game and then won it in the tenth inning when Sox newcomer Jesse Crain gave up a home run and the lead.  The Sox couldn't muster a run, let alone two, so what should have been a win turned into an extra-inning loss.
The defeat dropped the Sox to 6-4 on the year and into third place, 2.0 games behind Cleveland, with Kansas City sandwiched in between.  By the way, the Sox are the only team to have beaten the Tribe this year, so the Good Guys are not getting any help from the rest of the league.  The only good news is that the Twins and Tigers still trail, and they're the teams that the Sox need to worry about long term.  Go Sox!

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