The Sox took two out of three against Tampa, but were fortunate to win a single game. Friday they won in the ninth when Ordonez reached on an error, made it to second on a balk, reached third on a wild pitch, and scored on a sacrifice fly.
Yesterday they scored three runs in the ninth to win again in their last at bat. Light hitting Kelly Dransfeldt drove in the tying run with a two out, 0-2 single that scored Russ Gload on a very close play at the plate. Three free passes later, the winning run scored on the always exciting walk-off walk.
But the series against Tampa brought back bad memories of two ominous trends of the 2003 season: the prolonged slumps the offense had throughout the year and lack of inspired play against inferior teams, such as Tampa Bay and Detroit. In the 3 game series against Tampa, the Sox only scored 10 runs on 20 hits, with 3 runs and 3 hits coming in yesterday’s ninth.
I suppose I should be happy with the Sox winning the series, but the Sox will need to play better than this to keep up with the Twins.