Jones celebrates birthday in big way with 2 HRs in Sox win
Andruw Jones appears to be getting better with age. Maybe the White Sox will follow suit.
On his 33rd birthday, Jones snapped a 6-6 tie in the bottom of the ninth inning when he hit a hanging slider from Mariners relief pitcher Mark Lowe over the left-field fence and into the Sox' bullpen Friday night at U.S. Cellular Field.
Jones, who also hit a solo home run in the first inning off Ryan Rowland-Smith, lifted the reeling White Sox to their second win in eight games.
"It's a good feeling," Jones said. "It feels good to win. We ran into a problem, but we came back and wound up with the victory."
Leading 5-2 in the seventh inning, it looked like the Sox were going to finally roll to an easy win. But that quickly changed when starter Gavin Floyd loaded the bases with one out in the seventh.
J.J. Putz relieved Floyd and retired Franklin Gutierrez for the second out, but Jose Lopez followed with a grand slam to put Seattle in front.
"The one thing I saw about the ballclub after the grand slam, when we (came off) the field there was a little more enthusiasm," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "The guys were like, 'Let's get it back,' and it's nice to see that."
The Sox did get the run back when Alex Rios' two-out double in the bottom of the seventh inning scored Gordon Beckham to tie it.
That set the stage for Jones, who was dumped by the Texas Rangers after batting .214 last season. Signed by the White Sox to a paltry $500,000 contract (with another $1 million possible in performance bonuses), Jones already has earned his keep.
"He's been swinging the bat good since spring training," Guillen said. "I'm real proud of him. He came in with one goal, to play every day."
After homering twice in 4 at-bats, Jones' batting average is up to .293. As a team, the Sox are batting only .219, so look for the birthday boy to stay in the lineup.
"We've been playing not that great of baseball for the last two or three weeks," Jones said. "And a lot of guys have been struggling, so we're going with the hot bats. I got an opportunity and I'm talking advantage of it."
Matt Thornton got the win after pitching 21/3 perfect innings, striking out five of the seven Seattle hitters he faced.
"I think Matt Thornton makes it easy for me," Guillen said.
<p class="factboxheadblack">Scot Gregor's game tracker</p>
<p class="News">White Sox 7, Mariners 6</p>
<p class="News"><b>Happy birthday:</b> On his 33rd birthday, Andruw Jones hit a home run in the first inning and added another solo shot in the ninth to decide the outcome. According to Elias, Alex Rodriguez was the last player to hit multi-homers, including a walk-off, on his birthday. That was on July 27, 2002, when A-Rod played for Texas.</p>
<p class="News"><b>Power ball:</b> The Sox hit a season-high 4 home runs, 2 by Jones and 1 each by Carlos Quentin and Paul Konerko.</p>
<p class="News"><b>Making contact:</b> Quentin's HR snapped an 0-for-23 hitless streak.</p>
<p class="News"><b>Bringing the heat:</b> Matt Thornton matched his career high with 5 strikeouts. On the season, the big lefty has 16 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings.</p>
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