Three errors, the White Sox could have stood. Five was too much to take, especially with two of them coming in the eighth inning of a one-run game.
Despite three early errors, the Sox carried a 2-1 lead into the eighth Wednesday night. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays used two more errors–charged to pitcher Chad Bradford and shortstop Mike Caruso on botched force plays–to help them win 7-3 before 24,814 at Tropicana Field.
Five of the six runs in the inning were unearned. So much for John Snyder’s victory and the Sox’s first sweep of a three-game series on the road in more than a year.
“When you have a young bullpen, and you put that type of pressure on them to hold one-run leads, it’s difficult,” manager Jerry Manuel said. “It’s difficult for youth to not have a margin (for error).”
Bradford, making only his third career appearance, took the loss as the Sox finished the trip 3-3. He walked the .211-hitting Kevin Stocker on five pitches to force in the go-ahead run.
This wasn’t a game in which Bradford was supposed to pitch. He came in after setup man Bob Howry had given up a game-tying homer to Fred McGriff and a walk to Paul Sorrento.
Bradford gave up a single to Aaron Ledesma, then made matters worse by throwing wildly to second on Miguel Cairo’s grounder to the mound. The inning unraveled from there.
Stocker walked to force in a run. Another scored when catcher Chad Kreuter failed to hang onto Caruso’s off-balance throw on Randy Winn’s grounder. Caruso (26 errors) earlier had thrown wildly to first.
“We have to continue going through the (learning) process,” Manuel said. “It’s painful, but we must go through it.”
