Indian rookie firstsacker Michael Aubrey hit his second career homer to put the Tribe up one-zip. Joe Crede hit a broken bat flyball over the leftfield wall, only to have David Delucci snatch it back for the second out in the fifth, preserving Paul Byrd’s no-hitter. The very next hitter Nick Swisher broke it up for real with a sharp single to right.
After being hit with a pitch his first time up, then walking in his second plate appearance, there was no place to put Jermaine Dye when he stepped to the dish in the 6th. The Good Guys were trailing two to nothing with runners on 1st & 3rd as Byrd fell behind Dye, had to come to him, and Jermaine made him pay with a towering three run bomb to left. Soon Byrd had flown the coop, without his 100th career win, replaced by Jorge Julio.
Joe Crede rocketed a line drive out of the reach of Delucci for an RBI two base hit, Nick Swisher walked to fill the bases, and then Alexei Ramirez was robbed by Ben Francisco of a bases clearing double, and had to settle for a sac-fly. And the White Sox had to “settle” for five runs in the 6th.
Jermaine Dye turned around a Julio fastball for his 2nd homer of the game, the overflow crowd chanted J.D. until he came out for a curtain call. Lefty reliever Craig Breslow was brought in to serve up a blast off the bat of Jim Thome, who seems to be getting hot.
Boone Logan was called upon to close out the 7-2 win, but was replaced by Scott Linebrink with two on and only one out in the 8th, Linebrink did his job. The Sox turned it over to Matt Thornton, who pitched a scoreless 9th.
There were chants of, “LET’S GO WHITE SOX!”, as I walked down the middle of 35th to the L. This will be my last time visiting the Cell in May, won’t be there again till June, as I’m going to Waupaca tomorrow for the Memorial Day weekend. 5/22 will be Welcome Back Carlton Fisk Night. Hopefully the winning streak will still be going on when I venture back down to U.S. Cellular Field.