Defense dominates in Sox' loss
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If they wanted to make it easier on themselves Saturday, they could have skipped the other 14 games and focused their attention on U.S. Cellular Field.
The Angels and White Sox -- other than a pair of throwing errors by White Sox left fielder Carlos Quentin -- took turns making the kind of plays you would expect from division-leading teams.
Pablo Ozuna flashed the top highlight for the White Sox, fully extending on a dive to his left to spear Torii Hunter's liner in the fourth. That was about the only way the White Sox retired the free agent they tried to sign in the off-season, who singled and doubled Saturday after homering Friday night.
Three innings later, reliever Nick Masset picked off Gary Matthews Jr. from first base, even though replays showed Matthews was safe.
Matthews countered with two even better defensive gems from right field. His diving catch on Jermaine Dye's drive ended the game, and that wasn't even Matthews' best play in the game.
In the fifth inning of a scoreless game, Nick Swisher drove a ball down the right-field line. Matthews dove to stop the ball, got up and fired a strike to shortstop Brandon Wood at second to gun down Swisher.
"Watch the replay, that was an unbelievable play," said Swisher, saying he had no second thoughts about going for two.
The play became even bigger when the next batter, Brian Anderson, doubled.
"That's the way we are going to play," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We have to be aggressive on the basepaths, have to get something done. They had to make the perfect throw."
On his double, Anderson also nearly got thrown out at second, sliding in just ahead of left fielder Juan Rivera's throw.
The White Sox, who have only scored 4 runs in their last 3 games and just 1 in this series, know they aren't going to get any breaks from the Angels to get their offense on track
"Tomorrow we have to have a fresh attitude, blow off these last two games and pick up a victory before we go on the road," Anderson said.