Ninth Inning Heroes!

(August 10)

Short take:  Improbable victory

How did they do it?  After Thursday pathetic effort and now facing the best team in baseball, our Sox pull off an improbable ninth inning victory, 8-6 at Seattle.

Sox Fans, we're six losses off the division pace.  

Jon Garland pitched with heart and could have been the winner.  He left after five innings with a 2-1 lead, outdueling 12-3 Aaron Sele.  Only a Jeff Liefer fielding error prevented a shutout performance against the league's top offense.

The Sox bullpen couldn't make it hold up.  Alan Embree started the sixth giving up a triple, a walk, and a sacrifice fly.  After Embree walked the bases full, Jerry Manuel made the move to Rocky Biddle.  The next thing we saw was a skyrocket off the bat Edgar Martinez for a grand slam.

Aw, crap.

To his credit Biddle settle in and pitched 2.2 hitless innings.  That was the turning point, giving the Sox a chance to win.

A do-or-die ninth inning started with a first-pitch pop out by Carlos Lee.  Jeff Liefer swung at the first pitch too but managed a single.  Chris Singleton was next with a single (finishing a fine 3 for 4 evening including a dinger), followed by Jose Canseco with a nice base on balls in a pinch hit appearance.  Herbert Perry was the next pinch hitter and drew a walk from Seattle closer Sasaki, clearly not sharp with his control.  That forced in a run, 6-4 Seattle.

Ray Durham looked at strike three, whined about the call, then hauled his tired act into the dugout for another 0 for 5 performance in the lead-off spot.  With two outs, the Sox last hope was Jose Valentin.  Manos deliver with a shot in the right-center gap that left Ichiro Sazaki grabbing air before clearing the wall for a ground-rule double.

That damned ground-rule double.  Valentin gets beaten out of an rbi when the umpire sends Perry back to third base on a play he could have scored while walking on his hands.  No biggie for our Pale Hose!  Magglio Ordonez delivered the ultimate clutch hit, a double to drive in Perry and Valentin and put the Sox on top!  Yeah Baby!!!

Keith Foulke gets four outs in the ninth (the extra one required after another Liefer error) and Seattle's 45,000 fans filed out pissed that we stole Boeing from them, too.

Sox Fans say, "T.S.!"

Let's Go Go Go White Sox -- Chicago's Proud of You!