Yankees 9, White Sox 5: The Good, Bad, and Indifferent

Box Score

Good

Jose Contreras

It would be easy to lose sight of what Contreras accomplished thanks to the seventh-inning meltdown the Sox experienced, but over his 6.1 innings of work, Contreras was very good for the second consecutive outing. 

In his 6.1 innings of work, Contreras allowed four runs (all earned), seven hits, walked one and struck out three.

It was that one walk that set things in motion in the seventh, but the fact that it was his first and only walk of the game is a very encouraging sign.

When Contreras isn't walking hitters, it generally means that he's attacking the strike zone with his fastball and using his splitter to keep hitters off balance.

That's what Contreras did today and needs to keep doing to be a consistent member of this starting rotation. 

Mike MacDougal

Seriously? The day when Octavio Dotel and Matt Thornton struggle is the day that MacDougal 1.1 innings of scoreless ball? Come on, Baseball Gods. That's just cruel. 

The matchups for the next two games

When looking at this series, I predicted the Sox would win 2/3 but lose today's game. Javier Vazquez vs. Mike Mussina and Gavin Floyd vs. Phil Hughes both match up very well for the White Sox, and barring another massive bullpen collapse, the Sox should take those two games.  

Bad

Octavio Dotel & Matt Thornton

Talk about deja vu.

In the seventh inning, Dotel fell behind Bobby Abreu 2-0 and laid him a fastball right down the middle.

The result? Grand slam.

In the eighth inning, Matt Thornton fell behind Johnny Damon 2-0 and laid him a fastball right down the middle.

The result? Three-run homer.

Those seven runs were the difference in today's game. And both those home runs were perfect examples of why pitches need to get ahead in the count.

Against a team that can hit like the Yankees, your focus has to be there on every pitch. It looked like Dotel lost focus after striking Derek Jeter out and Thorton somehow failed to focus on throwing strikes after pitching coach Don Cooper went out and had a talk with him. 

This wasn't a freak occurrence. There was a clear reason why the Yankees hit those two home runs. Hopefully, the rest of the Sox pitching staff will take note of what happened today and do everything they can to get ahead in the count against this lineup in the next two games.

The offense

Throughout the first 18 games of this season, the Sox offense was known for not getting a lot of hits, but getting them when they counted.

Tonight was the exact opposite. The Sox banged out 11 hits, but went 3/14 with men in scoring position and left 12 on base, scoring five runs.

The approach that the Sox have had throughout the season was still there, as they wore down Chien-Ming Wang by taking a lot of pitches and battling late in counts. However, the lineup was just unable to get the job done when it mattered, and while it didn't cost them the game (the bullpen did), it played a big part in the loss. 

The Sox had a lot of early opportunities to blow the game open, but failed. Who knows how the game would have turned out had the Sox pushed across just a couple more runs in those situations. 

Juan Uribe's at-bat in the seventh inning

It wasn't that Uribe swung at the first pitch after Joba Chamberlain walked in a run. It was that he swung at the first pitch and popped out—on a hanging curveball.

Baseball is a funny game. In the second inning, Uribe got the exact same pitch—a hanging curveball right down the middle—and laced a two-run single to left. He then got the same pitch in the seventh with the bases loaded and hit a popup that would have been a home run in a silo. 

Still, it's incredibly frustrating. Uribe easily could have hit a grand slam, or at least, a game-tying single, on that pitch.  

Indifferent

Boone Logan

Logan faced one batter and got Johnny Damon to hit a weak chopper that went for an infield single. 

He got a run charged to him when Dotel gave up the grand slam, but he didn't deserve to give up a run. Again, he only faced one batter, so that's why he ended up here.