"Extra" Big "W"

(April 29)

Short Take:  Pitchers pick up slumbering bats.

Well who wudda thunk it?  The White Sox won a game.  Not just any game--but the final game of a nightmarish homestand, against a team that has been pounding lumps on everyone.  "Everyone" includes the Sox.  The problems plaguing the Sox all season were all too evident again today.  Nobody was delivering clutch hits, but Sox pitching pulled the team through.

Sox Fans will take it, a 2-1 victory in fourteen innings over the Seattle Mariners.  Beggars can't be choosers!

Mark Buerhle was begging for any kind of run support.  The near-rookie held the Mariners scoreless through seven innings, allowing just one hit.  His efforts had the Sox clinging to a 1-0 lead.  Josh Paul led off the fifth inning with a double to the wall.  Slumping Ray Durham was smart enough not to try adding to his power numbers, and bravely put down a successful sacrifice bunt.  #2 hitter Royce Clayton did his job too, lifting a deep fly to center field allowing Paul to score.  It was a textbook example of how to manufacture a run.  The Sox offense has been producing far too few of them!

Buerhle stood to be the winner but gave up a curling homerun that landed in the rightfield corner a scant 345 feet from homeplate.  Sox Fans started fretting because all of us have been down this primrose path with our team before.  Squandered scoring opportunities in the ninth, tenth, and twelfth innings underscored the point.

So what a surprise that Magglio Ordonez and his .250 batting average made a two-out situation into a scoring opportunity by singling and then stealing second base.  And what a relief and joyous revelation it was to see Paul Konerko at-bat and stroking one straight up the middle to bring home Ordonez with the winning run.  

Fourteen innings is a long time to score your second run.  Thanks to Buerhle, Keith Foulke, Kelly Wunsch, and Gary Glover, Mariner fans are still waiting.

Off day Monday, and then a west coast swing starting in Anaheim.  Time for a win streak!  Please.