As I boarded the Redline for the Cell, I noticed a fly got on with me. After it had buzzed around the train car annoying riders, it flew up my teeshirt, and couldn’t find its way out. I kept fluffing my teeshirt in an attempt to free the fly. Other riders couldn’t help observe my antics. It brought to mind the Three Stooges episode where a bee flew down a dance instructor’s dress just as she told them to do what she did. Needless to say, the bee caused her to jump around like crazy as the bee stung her beneath her dress. Well our boys followed suit, jumping around as if they had bees in their britches.
The White Sox jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Paul Konerko launched a long home run off Tony Saunders in the 4th inning. Toby Hall made it two to nothing when he homered to left the next inning. A.J., Thome, & Griffey were all given the day off against the southpaw after Saturday night’s marathon victory. Josh Fields was the team’s DH. I have a hunch that Alex Cintron passed along the nude photos of Ozzie Guillen to Fields before leaving town. I’d rather see Chris Getz in the lineup, batting leadoff, with Brian Anderson moving down in the order.
John Danks was cruising along, it seemed as though both teams were going through the motions. With one out in the top of the six it was 1st & 3rd after Mark Teixeira doubled & Vladimir Guerrero singled. Then Danks exited stage left after surrendering an RBI double to right off the bat of Torii Hunter. D.J. Carrasco induced Juan Rivera to top a slow roller to thirdbase, which knotted the game at two.
Three times in this ballgame the homeplate umpire gave the Angels hitter timeout, despite the fact that Chicago’s pitcher was already in his pitching motion, and he had to holdup at the last moment. Finally Guillen couldn’t take it anymore, lipped at the ump, which resulted in the umpire mouthing back, rather than just going about his job of calling the ballgame. The reason the rule is in place, not to grant timeout to a batter when the pitcher is in his motion is to prevent an injury to the pitcher. God knows we don’t need to get another player injured, especially a pitcher, after already losing Jose Contreras, Carlos Quentin, & Joe Crede.
It might’ve come back to bite the White Sox in the 8th inning. Gary Matthews, Jr. singled to leadoff the 8th off a tired Horacio Ramirez. Ramirez, who replaced Carrasco, had worked the previous two nights, and appeared to be running on fuimes. Teixeira appeared to take strike three, but the ump called it a ball, allowing Mark to double on the next pitch, making it 2nd & 3rd, with nobody out. With the infield in, Ehren Wasserman was called upon for the 2nd straight game to face Guerrero, and again he retired the slugger without allowing any damage, this time getting Vlady to ground weakly to third. Next Torii Hunter was intentionally passed setting up a possible inning ending doubleplay by Juan Rivera. Mike Scioscia replaced Rivera with the lefthanded hitting Garret Anderson. Anderson didn’t look comfortable facing the submariner Wassermann, as he had a 2-2 count, when he lifted a deep foul fly ball into the rightfield corner. I screamed, “NO!”, but Jermaine Dye couldn’t hear my pleading, as he caught the ball, allowing the eventual winning run to score from thirdbase. Brandon Wood grounded out, but the Angels had a one run lead.
It was KRod time once again in the 9th. Konerko was replaced by pinch runner Dewayne Wise after lining a one out single to center. Then it looked like Chicago had a shot after Alexei Ramirez grounded Wise to 2nd, but Nick Swisher never took the bat off his shoulders, taking three strikes to end the game. I don’t understand why you’d take a bat to homeplate, if you don’t intend on swinging it.
So put the brooms away, Angels 3, White Sox 2.