The White Sox were in the driver’s seat all the way Friday night against the Tampa Bay Rays. Gordon Beckham, Alexei Ramirez and Mark Teahen all homered off the Rays’ James Shields and John Danks and Jesse Crain held Tampa Bay to four runs in eight innings.
Then the wheels all fell off in the ninth. Ramirez and Juan Pierre made errors on back-to-back plays and the crushing blow was Dan Johnson’s three-run homer after the Rays had closed to within 7-6 with help from the errors. Only two of the runs off Sox closer Matt Thornton were earned, but of course all of them count, and the Sox had a crushing loss, and the Rays their first win of the season — and they scored more runs in this game (nine) than they had scored combined in the previous six losses (eight).
Former Cub Kyle Farnsworth closed the game for the Rays.
The two teams will meet again tomorrow afternoon in a game that will begin at 3:10 p.m. and be televised on WGN.