Morning Box Score: One Painful White Sox Loss
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 9, 2011 2:00PM
The question asked when the White Sox and Twins meet is "How will the Sox lose?" It's a valid question, given how the Sox turn into a T-Ball squad against Minnesota. Not even staking Gavin Floyd to a 5-1 lead after one inning is enough to make the most fervent Sox fan breathe easy. Rene Tosoni tied the game against Floyd in the fourth and Luke Hughes provided the winning margin with a three-run shot off of Will Ohman to send the Sox record against the Twins to 0-6 this season and their record against AL Central opponents to 7-15. But hey, Adam Dunn hit a two run homer in the first inning, so there's something to hang your hats on, Sox fans.
The Pirates have long had the Cubs' number and now it appears as thought the Bucs are one of those up and coming teams. Michael McKenry's three-run homer off of Carlos Marmol in the eighth inning was the margin of victory for the surprising Pirates, who at 46-42 are playing winning baseball this late in a season since the end of the Barry Bonds/Bobby Bonilla/Andy Van Slyke era. Up until Marmol lost command of his slider, the Cubs were in a position to win this game. Aramis Ramirez stayed locked into his power stroke of late, cranking his 15th home run of the season in the first inning, while Darwin Barney's RBI single staked the Cubs to a 4-3 lead in the eighth that they normally would have called an automatic win with Marmol heading to the mound.