Soggy Sox Opener

(April 6)

Short Take:  Not enough in the clutch

It wasn't meant to be Sox Fans, but it sure ought to have been.  A glorious day for Sox Fans to celebrate ended on a sour note with a 10-9 extra inning loss to Phil Garner's Fightin' Tigers.  The one-hundredth opening day on the South Side with a division championship banner to hoist should never have ended like it did.  And it didn't have to.

The Sox came out and bombed the hapless Dave Mlicki early and often.  Ray Durham started it with a lead-off homerun.  It was the first of three the Sox would collect in the game.  Anybody on base for one of these and the Sox win this game.

Chris Singleton got the start in centerfield and made the most of it.  He batted in Carlos Lee after a lead-off triple in the fourth, stole second, stole third, and came home on a throwing error.  Now that's manufacturing a run!  What looks like a big inning results in just those two runs.  The next three batters can't get it done.

Jim Parque looked to be the winner when he left in the sixth inning, the Sox still leading 5-3.  Reliever Antonio Osuna had Tony Clark in the hole 0-2, but inexplicably couldn't finish him off, serving up the season's biggest fattest pitch so far on the 2-2 count, landing in the new rightfield bullpen for a grand slam.  

Only on the north side would they consider that "cute".

Give our boys credit, they came back and made a game of it.  With two out in the seventh, Magglio Ordonez doubled and a clutch rbi by Paul Konerko was a one-of-a-kind event for the Sox this day--driving in a run with two out.  God bless Herbert Perry and his cement shoes.  He took one for the team in the eighth by gracefully not getting out of the way of an inside pitch.  Jose Valentin was sharp to draw a walk (batting righthanded) and force in a run, too.  Frank Thomas sacrificed one home and the Sox scored three runs to tie it in the eighth.  Only a two-out rbi hit by Ordonez was missing.

Sean Lowe was sharp in two innings relief after Osuna's disaster and Keith Foulke was awesome in the ninth.  He hit the leadoff man in the tenth inning however (one of four in the game for those of you keeping track in WSI preseason predictions poll), and the Tigers brought him home.

A crappy way to lose the home opener.  Woulda, shoulda,... didn't.