Some Kind of Ugly

(July 20)

Short Take:  No clutch hits

If you thought the Sox couldn't possibly blow a game quicker than yesterday when Cleveland scored six times in the first three innings, you've been proven wrong.  Our Pale Hose were bombed early and often in a depressing 7-2 defeat to Boston.  This one was ugly.  Real ugly!

Rocky Biddle has rightly earned a "hard luck" label for pitching so many quality starts but failing to garner enough run support to earn a win.  He was tagged with his sixth loss of the season in this one, and perhaps the sting was eased knowing he deserved every bit of it.  Biddle allowed three-run homeruns in both the first and the second innings.  The way the Sox offense has been going, the game was likely over right there.

Oh sure, the Sox got some offense but it was of the far too-little variety, arriving in the far too-late time frame.  Royce Clayton and Paul Konerko each had dingers, but each was a lead-off variety and thus counted one-third as much as Boston's bombs.  

What really killed the Sox was lack of timely hitting.  Both Carlos Lee and Magglio Ordonez grounded into double-plays that killed rallies and left the Sox without runs.  DH Jose Canseco's strikeout fest continued, 0 for 4 with three K's.

How bad was it?  The Sox actually out-hit the Red Sox 10 to 9 and still lost by five runs.  

Jerry Manuel kept Biddle in the game.  Like Sean Lowe the night before, he settled in and pitched effectively.  Jon Garland relieved him for the eighth and gave up a tater while Alan Embree got mop-up duty in the ninth, two hits and two strikeouts.  Good thing the Giants are paying a big chunk of this guy's salary!

Great news:  the Sox get to go right back out there and try again Saturday afternoon.  The drudgery of this season is far from over.