Durham Delivers!

(September 7)  

Short take:  Stayin' Alive!

What's this--a Sox rally?  The Sox had plenty of them, and good thing.  No lead seems safe when facing the primates that make up Charlie Manuel's line up.  The Sox scored early, often, and most importantly, more than Cleveland.  Offense carries the day in a 10-7 Sox victory.

As is so often the case, the key was the leadoff man.  Ray Durham has never gotten his game together this season but his performance this game harkened back to a happier time when the Sox scored runs in gobs.  Ray Ray was always in the middle of those rallies.  Tonight was no exception.

It was Durham leading off the game with a single and scoring on Magglio Ordonez's rbi double.  It was Durham who batted in Jeff Liefer in the second inning and Royce Clayton in the fourth.  It was Durham's triple in the fifth that brought home two more runs.

Not everything was clover for our Sox.  Royce Clayton batted into a double-play but had the good fortune to receive a gift-rbi when the boneheaded Tribe catcher thought he had a force out at home on a play requiring a tag out.  It was an obvious mental gaffe that the official scorer failed to rule an error.  Clayton got another rbi when his bouncer back to the mound was deflected by the pitcher off his glove leaving the infielders with no play.   It was our defensive specialist who was so slow with Durham on a double-play grounder, he didn't even bother throwing it to first base--a wise move given his arm strength.  It was Clayton again miraculously avoiding a fielding error on a shot that bounced OVER his glove into left field on a ball that so played him, he actually jumped to his right to avoid catching it in his chest.  No error. 

Considering all of Clayton's miscues in the field and 2 for 3 with 2 ribbies line score, it's clear to anybody who watched the game, not even the maestro of weak ballplayers, Mike Caruso, could have turned in a softer performance that looked good in the box score.  He left the game after aggravating his pulled hamstring.  So much for assertions regarding his durability.  Pretty lame any way you cut it.

Rocky Biddle made sure Sox Fans sweated for his entire six innings of the game.  Kip Wells made a perfect punching bag for Tribe hitters in his 1+ inning of work.  Bob Pulsipher was pulverized, too.  The score was 10-7 with just one out in the Indians' eighth inning.

Against all probability, Bob Howry settled things down and of course Keith Foulke was his reliable self to shut the door in the ninth, earning his 38th save.

Sox live for another day.  Same teams tomorrow.