Sox fall 6-4, happy to see Jays fly away
The White Sox weren't feeling too bad Thursday night about failing to gain a big game against the second-place Twins.
After Minnesota lost to the Kansas City Royals earlier in the day, the Sox weren't able to take advantage as they fell to the Blue Jays 6-4 at U.S. Cellular Field.
On the bright side, the White Sox don't have to deal with Toronto again this season. Seven losses to the Jays in eight games was quite enough.
"Thank God they're out of here and we don't have to face those guys anymore," Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "They give a lot of people trouble. I think we have to thank them, too, because they were pretty good against Minnesota a couple of weeks ago."
The Blue Jays swept a three-game home series against the Twins at the beginning of September and were 6-0 vs. Minnesota for the season, so maybe the White Sox can take some pride in winning one of four in the series against Toronto.
"They've got excellent pitching, both starting and in their bullpen," said Sox designated hitter Jim Thome. "They've got a nice club. We'll be glad to kind of move on."
The White Sox had to deal with Jays starter Shaun Marcum on Thursday. The right-hander was just as tough as he was May 2 in Toronto, when he pitched 6 scoreless innings.
"Marcum threw the ball well," Guillen said. "He kept everyone off balance, cut the ball into the batters, he threw pretty well against us."
Marcum had a shutout going through 7 innings, but so did White Sox starter Gavin Floyd.
"That's baseball," Guillen said. "You go seven innings with no runs then all of a sudden there's a 10-run inning. I thought Gavin threw the ball well; just all of a sudden he started to get the ball over the plate and got hit pretty hard in that (eighth) inning."
The Blue Jays scored 6 runs in the eighth - 4 off Floyd and 1 each against Matt Thornton and Ehren Wassermann.
"I just ran into some trouble in the eighth inning," Floyd said. "I was trying to make pitches and get the ball down. They put together some hits. I was attacking them all game and had done the same thing, so why change?
"They started hitting the ball a little bit. You have to deal with it."
In the bottom of the eighth, the Sox finally got to Marcum, scoring 2 runs and knocking him out of the game.
Thome followed with a 2-run homer off relief pitcher Scott Downs to at least make it interesting.
"We showed some life," Thome said. "You've got to give credit to Marcum. He threw a heck of a game, and he knows how to pitch."
Guillen is hoping the White Sox' late rally carries over into this weekend's series against the Detroit Tigers.
"We're going to continue to compete," Guillen said. "I think we fought real well. After the seventh inning we fought back. Hopefully we come out strong."
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