The first game of the White Sox series hosting the Twins saw Gavin Floyd almost throw a no-hitter. Then last night Carlos Gomez hit for the cycle as Minnesota pounded Chicago 13-1 in a game that started almost two hours late due to rain. Rob had a spare ticket for the series finale today, but I really didn’t want to go, but I went anyway. In addition to Rob’s wife Vicki, Jimmy C came along, getting a freebie from a co-worker Carlos May. Carlos & Jim work together for the Post Office.
Minnesota jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but then Dick went to the bathroom, and sure enough Jermaine Dye hit a homer to left to cut the lead in half. Then Juan Uribe hit a two run bomb, Kevin Slowey would’ve been better off walking him on a 3-2 pitch.
John Danks was lifted in favor of Octavio Dotel, who struckout five in two innings of scoreless relief. Scott Linebrink & Bobby Jenks worked the final two frames without allowing a run. Meanwhile the Sox tallied thrice more. One run came in when Uribe tookout the Twins pivot man on a sure doubleplay ball with one out and the bags juiced. Another score occured when Alexei Ramirez stole second and came home on an RBI single up the middle by Carlos Quentin. One more came home to make the final 6-2.
A weird play looked like it would be a huge break for the White Sox when Paulie Konerko checked his swing on a 3-1 pitch with Quentin on 2nd & Jim Thome on 1st with nobody out, the ball was low so both runners moved up, but the pitch was called a strike after appealing to the firstbase umpire. The Twins pitcher then tried tagging Quentin & Thome while they were standing on 3rd & 2nd respectively. The Twins manager was ejected after getting upset when the Sox runners were allowed to stay on their advantageous sacks. Konerko tapped weakly to third, Dye was intentionally passed, Nick Swisher lived up to his name by striking out, and Joe Crede was retired on a popup to end the threat.
Checkout www.whitesox.com/fanfoto 5/8/08 gallery 3