Hmmm... Lets see now. Carl Everett leaves with an injury, and then we run off three in a row, that being a sweep of the AL best White Sox (and don't give me any of that, their not trying crap). Coinsidence? Maybe the whole club-house unity thing has more merit than some give credit for.
Could it be? No way! Mike Lansing contributed? With that, Lansing has now officially helped the team in two games since coming over with Roloando Arrojo from the Rockies. I believe the Sox are responsible for 2mil of his 2000 salary, so if we're paying him in games he's been useful in, the Sox paid him 1mil for last night. Even a squirel finds a nut once in a while.
As for the actual happenings of the game, it was a back and forth battle the whole way with our Sox edging out another one-run win. Izzy Alcantara provided the initial spark with a two-out three-run jack in the first. But Ramon Martinez was back up to his old tricks lasting only four batters, walking two and hitting two. Jimy nipped it in the but immediately and summoned Tim Wakefield from the pen.
After scoring two in the first the Chi-Sox scored two more in the third to take a 4-3 lead. Then in the fourth our Sox behind RBI singles from Lansing and Donnie Sadler (infield hit, gotta love the speed) took back the lead 5-4.
In the seventh the Sox extended their lead to 6-4 on an RBI single from Nomar Garciaparra (3-4 R RBI .372). Only to have the Chi-Sox tie the game in the bottom of the inning off a solo homer from Frank "big hurt" Thomas and a RBI single from Jeff Abbott (another chump who eats up the Sox).
Then in the eigth the Baseball Gods shined on the Red Sox. Scott Hatteberg lead off with a single on a ball that should have been caught by Abbott in right field, but he lost it in the lights (nomaly Magglio Ordonez is out there). Rico Brogna pinch ran for Hatteberg with Lou Merloni coming up to lay down a sac bunt. Well Merloni did just that, laid down the bunt, but in charging the ball White Sox pitcher Bill Simas slipped and kicked the ball away towards the Red Sox dugout. The play ended with Merloni Safe on first and Brogna hustled his way to third, who probably would have been dead had Chi-Sox catcher Mark Johnson not bobbled the ball once he chased it down.
Brian Daubach was up next and was promptly disposed of with the wiff extending his slump to the vicinity of 1-30. So now with one out Jimy opted not to pinch hit for Lansing. The count ran 3-0 and Lansing had the green light (we had nothing to lose, why not). After fouling off the next two pitches and hanging tough on a third, Lansing hit a fly ball to right that was just deep enough for Brogna to score from third. It was a semi-close play at the plate on the throw from Jeff Abbott, again, lucky Ordonez wasn't out there.
Derek lowe came on in the ninth, and after giving up a cheezy bloop hit, he shut the door for his AL lead tieing 41st save and 22nd in a row.
The grudge match begins tonight in Tampa Bay (7:00pm EST) as the Sox return to Tropicana Field. Should be interesting to see if anything happens in this series or if the Sox wait til next year and for the smoke to settle a little more.