8/20 Twins 7 Sox 3

What was Ozzie Guillen thinking? The Sox were hitting Juan Rincon hard in the eighth inning when Juan Uribe came to the plate representing the potential tieing run. Left-handed pitcher Denys Reyes was warming up for the Twins with a 0.99 ERA. Ozzie pinch-hit for Uribe with switch-hitter Alex Cintron. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire responded by bringing in Reyes. In other words, Ozzie forced Gardenhire to remove an ineffective pitcher and replace him with a 0.99 ERA.

The bottom of the eighth inning was almost as frustrating as the first. With the Sox trailing 5-3, Ozzie brought in Neal Cotts. Cotts has been struggling lately, and by the time the smoke had cleared, the score was 7-3. Ozzie should not bring Cotts into close games until he starts pitching better.



Today's game also marked a setback for the starting pitching. Javier Vazuez allowed 4 earned runs on 7 hits over 7 innings. He did not pitch poorly on the whole, but he always gives up his hits in bunches. This likely stems from an inability to pitch from the stretch, and it needs to be corrected.

The Tigers also lost today. Going into this week's four game set with Detroit, the Sox trail them by 5.5 games. They lead Minnesota by 1 game for the Wild Card.