Top 4th: BJ Upton 2, White Sox 0…Gavin Floyd walked Crawford to lead off the 4th and I’m back at Ten Cat on Ashland. BJ has tagged young Gavin for two dingers and MLB is reporting these two go back to high school together…Cliff Floyd just doubled to let to drive in Crawford and the bad news keeps coming as Dioner Navarro drives in Floyd o a single to right…Rays 4 White Sox 0…Gavin out, Clayton Richard is in…Gabe Gross up…grounds into a 6-4-3 dp…Bartlett flies to center….whoa, great catch by Junior to end the season inning. I didn’t see much of Gavin, but I’m willing to bet the problem wasn’t in missing the zone or the plate, or the dead-center of the plate…
Bot 4th: Dye and Thome fly out..Paulie battles and what was a cut fastball becomes a souvenir in left – Rays 4 White Sox 1…Sonnanstine v Griffey ends badly as the legend swings at ball 3 for the final out.
Top 5th: Floyd went 3 IP with 5R 4H 2BB and 4K before he got the hookski…Iwamura singles to right with one out…bringing up BJ Upton, starved of his preferred offerings from Floyd grounds to Uribe for out #2.. Pena singles to left and drives in Iwamura…Rays 5 White Sox 1…Clayton fans Longoria…and AJ guns down Pena on a steal attempt to put this sad, sad inning to an end.
Bot 5th: Ramirez lines out to left, Dewayne Wise looks at an 0-2 fastball on the corner for the next out…Juan Uribe puts a whole lot into a weak-ass popup clearing the way for what all of Western civilization was mere precursor to: an Ashton Kutcher camera commercial.
Top 6th: Welcoming Ben “Our Year” Schwartz to the liveblog and welcoming Carl Crawford to the plate, who gets a leadoff walk, which rarely ends badly…Aybar flies to Junior ad Crawford won’t try him… Navarro pops to shallow left…2 out for Gabe Gross as Thornton starts tossing in the pen…Crawford does try AJ and beats the throw on a steal to second…Cabrera actually whiffed but wouldnt have made the tag..Richard can’t pry the baseball giant Gabe Gross out of the box at a 1-2 count…2-2…popped up — Rocco Baldelli would have never done that.
Bot 6th: Cabrera sends one to the warning track, which will not count toward the score…AP Popupski does his thing to center…and Jermaine Dye shows em how it’s done, as long as it’s done one solo home run at the time…Rays 5 White Sox 2…for some reason that’s enough to get Sonanstine (5 1/3 3H 2 R 1BB 4K) the hook…I don’t see it, myself…J.P. Howell III takes the mound to face Thome…Billionaire recluse Howard Hughes has apparently returned to his season seat behind the left hand batters…roller 4-3. Expect Thornton now.
Top 7th: Not Thornton, Dotel in to face Bartlett…who sends a 3-2 fastball to left past Uribe for a double…and NOW comes Thornton for Iwamura…punched out inside for out number one…Pena up after an intentional walk of BJ Upton…2 on and one out…Pena scores Bartlett on a line drive – Rays 6 Sox 2 and now…the end is near…and so we face…Evan Longoria, whose pop to Cabrera fails to end the inning…Pena steals second..Crawford grounds out
Bot 7th: a paulie broken bat pop to left…Junior works Howell 3-2..gets him on a wicked curve, take a good look at Ken Griffey Jr, it’s gonna have to last you all winter…Alexei singles up the middle to start the most legendary rally in Sox playoff history bring up Nick Swisher…Navarro calls time and Howell almost falls on his face…and Nick Swisher, Son Of Steve, has popped up to end the inning. Genes. There’s nothing you can do about them.
Top 8th: whatever, no score
Bot 8th: Making four runs out of six outs isn’t impossible in theory…but Juan Uribe groudning out won’t help matters…neither will Balfour V Cabrera, the matchup in the first game of this series that I trace all the bad news to, where Cabrera decided to indulge in bargain-basement posturing instead of taking advantage of bases loaded…and now he flies to left. So long, OC, and I mean forever, you free-agent fuckup..AJ Faroutski walks…Dye gets ahead at 2-1..Balfour has a brief chat with his cap….and sneaks strike three past JD. JD, you magnificent WS MVP bastard, see you next year without that Colombian puta batting in front of you.
Top 9th: Scotty Linebrink, had you been around, would the Twins have even been stuck in the Pale Hose rearview mirror all year? As Iwamura doubles to left off you, even these comforting thoughts fade….Upton sac flies to dye and Iwamura gets to third…Pena gets the intentional walk…and the 0-for-4- Longoria makes it an even five.
Thome v Balfour: ground out.
Konerko. fly to Gross.
Ken Griffey, Junior. Really? Really?
Mighty Griffey has struck out.