The symptoms resurfaced quickly Wednesday night and were too acute to cure.
Javier Vazquez’s sixth-inning blues suddenly transformed a crafty effort into a tough 5-2 loss at Detroit that puts the White Sox back to where they started this three-game series–4Q games out of first place in the American League Central.
Craig Monroe smacked a flat 2-2 breaking pitch over the left-field fence for a game-winning grand slam that now places more pressure on the Sox to win Thursday’s series finale.
“If we win the game, it’s going to be a lift for us,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “I don’t say it’s do-or-die, but it’s important for us and them. Whoever wins or loses, it’s a two-game [difference], not one.”
“I got my best guy (Jose Contreras) throwing there. Hopefully, Kenny Rogers shows up the way he has been showing up lately, and we take advantage. But we have to show up and play the game right.”
Offensively, there was little the Sox (58-35) could muster against Jeremy Bonderman (10-4), who pounded left-handed hitters with 95 mph fastballs and snapped breaking pitches away from right-handed hitters.
The Sox didn’t get a runner in scoring position until there were two outs in the ninth, making Vazquez’s sixth-inning downfall more glaring.
Entering Wednesday’s game, opponents batted only .228 against Vazquez the first two times through the batting order. But that average jumped to .361 in subsequent at-bats.
Even more baffling to Vazquez is that the Tigers (63-31) opened the sixth with four soft singles–including Carlos Guillen’s RBI bloop hit.
But Vazquez’s sharp-breaking pitches that kept Detroit off-balance for five innings became flat and hittable, although Guillen stuck with Vazquez because he wasn’t hit hard until Monroe’s slam.
“No doubt about it,” a discouraged Vazquez said while leaning against a locker stall. “This is really frustrating because I feel good, and something always happens. This is why I feel frustrated. I feel I’m throwing as well as possible, and nothing goes right for me.”
Monroe, who is batting .333 with three home runs and seven RBIs against the Sox this season, high-fived his teammates as he crossed home plate and then bumped into catcher A.J. Pierzynski.
The two sides exchanged words, but Pierzynski said Monroe apologized in his next at-bat.
“It was an exciting part of the game, and he didn’t see me,” Pierzynski said. “What can you do?
“He hit a grand slam. You like to see excitement and guys run around the bases, especially at home, but you don’t like guys bumping into you. At the same time, he didn’t mean to do it, and it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
Said Monroe: “It was no disrespect, but it doesn’t get any bigger than that. It was in the moment, and I enjoyed every minute of it.”
The loss snapped the Sox’s six-game winning streak at Comerica Park dating back to September. The Sox collected only one hit–Jermaine Dye’s two-out single in the ninth–after Juan Uribe hit a home run in the fifth off Bonderman for a 2-0 lead.
