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A.J. Pierzynski’s walk-off homer trumps Grady Sizemore’s big night in Tribe loss

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10		R	H	E
CLEVELAND	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	5	8	1
Chicago (AL)	2	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	6	8	1
W: Adam Russell (2-0), L: Masahide Kobayashi (4-4) HR: CHI–HR - A.J. Pierzynski 2 (7), Jermaine Dye (19) ; CLE–Grady Sizemore 2 (21)

A.J. Pierzynski’s lead-off, tenth inning home run gave the Chicago White Sox a 6-5 win over the Cleveland Indians, it’s second straight extra-innings victory, and a sweep of the series at Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field. Grady Sizemore deserved better.

Sizemore had a huge night, as the centerfielder continues to try and carry this team on his back. He led off the game with an infield single, and moved to second base on Jamey Carroll’s groundout. It was obvious that he had rattled Jose Contreras already, judging from Contreras’ three pick off attempts to first base, trying to keep Sizemore on the bag. Ben Francisco followed with a single, moving Sizemore to third base. Jhonny Peralta followed with a single of his own, scoring Sizemore from third, and giving the Indians a 1-0 lead.

Sizemore would come up to bat in the fifth inning with the White Sox ahead 3-2. He drew a walk on an eight-pitch at bat, then stole second, for his 20th SB of the year. Jamey Carroll followed with a triple, scoring Sizemore to tie the game at 3. Again, Contreras spent Carroll’s at bat trying to keep Sizemore on the bag with two more pickoff attempts. Of course, Carroll is sitting on third with nobody out, and never moves an inch. Wonderful.

In the sixth, Sizemore hit a two-out home run, his 20th, to give the Indians a 4-3 lead. It wasn’t his last of the night.

The White Sox took a 5-4 lead into the ninth inning, when Grady Sizemore struck again. Sizemore deposited a 1-1 pitch into the right field seats to tie the game at five, for his 21st homer of the season.

Unfortunately for the Indians, Grady Sizemore can only bat once through the lineup. Sizemore did become the first player in the majors with 20 home runs, and 20 stolen bases. It’s time to start looking towards the player achievements this season, and it doesn’t look like there are going to be a bunch of those either.

Masa Kobayashi pitched a perfect ninth inning, before giving up the first pitch, walk-off homer to Pierzynski that ended the game, and put the Indians behind the White Sox 12 1/2 games.

If there was a question about the season being over, the White Sox may have answered it. It’s only July 2, and stranger things have happened, but if the Indians do make some sort of charge, the team is going to look mighty different than it does right not.

I don’t think this is C.C’s last start with the Indians, but fans of Sabathia may want to start recording his games. It would take a miracle of all miracles to see him pitching as an Indian past this month. Of course, with Shapiro, you never know.

Consider the All-Star break Mark Shapiro’s winter meetings. Of course, had he used the actual winter meetings, we wouldn’t be here, would we.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 7:19 am and is filed under Jamey Carroll, Ben Francisco, Masahide Kobayashi, Tribe Loss, Adam Russell, A.J. Pierzynski, Jermaine Dye, Jhonny Peralta, Grady Sizemore, James Pete, Jose Contreras, Tribe Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.