Wise slam helps Sox sweep
How's that for one-upmanship?
Dewayne Wise showed the Detroit Tigers on Sunday that anything they can do, he can do better.
Pinch hitting for Brian Anderson in the bottom of the eighth inning with two outs and the bases loaded in a 7-7 game, Wise launched an 0-1 pitch from Kyle Farnsworth for a grand slam to right field that lifted the White Sox to an 11-7 victory and a doubleheader sweep.
Wise's blow answered a grand slam in the top of the eighth from Detroit's Marcus Thames off Sox reliever Octavio Dotel, which capped a 5-run rally that had the boobirds chirping.
"When you come off the bench to pinch hit, you look for a fastball and I missed the first one," Wise said. "I was kind of surprised he came back with another one, and I was able to hit it out of the ballpark."
Wise was far from the only hero for the first-place White Sox, however.
Javier Vazquez tossed 7 scoreless innings in Game 1 to lead Chicago to a 4-2 win following a rain delay of 3:11. The doubleheader sweep, combined with Minnesota's 7-3 loss in Baltimore, meant the White Sox departed for their road trip to New York, Kansas City and Minnesota toting 1-game lead in the A.L. Central with two weeks left in the season.
"We need to control what we can control and that's winning games," Vazquez said. "We can't look at what Minnesota is doing. We have to just do our part and win."
John Danks was equally effective in a starting role in the second game, throwing 6 scoreless innings and allowing but 4 hits. Danks exited with a seemingly safe 7-0 lead.
However, the Tigers pulled within 7-2 on Mike Hessman's 2-run home run in the seventh against Scott Linebrink, setting the stage for a near-disastrous performance by the Sox bullpen in the eighth.
Sox manager Ozzie Guillen rifled through relief pitchers in the eighth like he was looking for a matching sock at the bottom of a dresser drawer. He removed Boone Logan after Logan gave up a leadoff home run to Curtis Granderson, which pulled the Tigers within 7-3.
D.J. Carrasco entered the game and promptly surrendered singles to Placido Polanco and Magglio Ordonez, so Guillen returned to the mound and called for Octavio Dotel.
Dotel walked Miguel Cabrera to load the bases, then struck out Gary Sheffield looking.
However, Thames subsequently ripped a grand slam to the bleachers in left-center field on an 0-1 pitch to knot the score.
"I was trying to win the game, to get (Thames) out," Dotel said. "But he got a better shot at me, and there's nothing I can say."
That's OK. Guillen said enough for both of them.
"If we want to win this thing and get where we want to get, the bullpen got to get better," Guillen said. "Our bullpen been struggling the last couple weeks. Believe me, if we do not get better, we gonna be watching TV in October."