Nothing 'dirty' about this one: Nick Swisher home run sends Sox to dramatic extra-inning win

August 6, 1:46 AMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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Nick Swisher launched a walk-off three-run home run to give the Sox a 10-8 win in 14 innings.

On Friday, July 25, the Tigers had their hearts ripped out by the White Sox. With two outs in the ninth inning and closer Todd Jones trying to nail down a one-run victory for Detroit, Carlos Quentin poked two-strike pitch into right field for a single.

Jermaine Dye promptly followed that with a go-ahead, two-run home run off Jones. 7-6 White Sox, just like that.

Detroit was just one strike away (again, with nobody on base) from beating the White Sox on July 25, but they couldn't get it done.

The Sox couldn't possibly top that, right?

Wrong.

The Tigers got off to a quick start when Placido Polanco took White Sox starter Gavin Floyd deep for a two-run home run in the first inning. The Sox would scratch a run home in the third on a groundout by AJ Pierzynski, but the Tigers extended their lead in the fifth when they hit for the cycle—double, homer, triple, and single in that order—to start the inning off and plate four runs to go up 6-1.

Obviously, things were not looking so great for the White Sox at that point, losers of their last two and six of their last eight coming into Tuesday's game. Floyd had been knocked out after only lasting four innings, and the game was turned over to a bullpen that had an ERA of over 6.00 since the All-Star break.

But this was not a game that the White Sox were going to allow to just be written off as a loss. Carlos Quentin singled in a run in the bottom of the fifth to make it 6-2 and Paul Konerko followed with a two-run home run in the sixth to put the score at 6-4 and knock Detroit starter Nate Robertson out of the game.

Detroit has had a frightfully bad bullpen all year, and today, it reared its ugly head in particularly gruesome fashion. Aquilino Lopez gave up a solo home run to Quentin in the seventh that cut the Tigers' lead to just one and Kyle Farnsworth—acquired from the Yankees for catcher Ivan Rodriguez before the trade deadline—allowed a game-tying solo home run to Alexei Ramirez in the eighth to put the score at 6-6.

The Sox bullpen deserves a lot of credit for keeping the White Sox in the game—which is exactly what a good bullpen will do when a starter gets knocked out of a game early. Ehren Wassermann threw 1.1 innings and allowed a run, but after him, Boone Logan and DJ Carrasco combined for 2.2 crucial scoreless innings that allowed the White Sox to get back into the game.

After the home run by Ramirez, the game became a true battle of the bullpens, as neither team scored for a span of five innings. Farnsworth shut the White Sox down in the ninth before handing the keys to Fernando Rodney, who threw three of the most impressive innings you'll ever see from a reliever. Rodney struck out five and executed his pitches to perfection, and because of that, he didn't allow a hit in his outing. Freddy Dolsi also added a scoreless inning for Detroit.

For the White Sox, Bobby Jenks and Octavio Dotel held the potent Tigers offense scoreless through 2.1 innings, although Jenks was aided greatly by a spectacular, seat-of-his-pants throw by third baseman Juan Uribe to get him out of his inning. After Dotel gave up a one-out single to Edgar Renteria, Don Cooper (who took over managing the bullpen with Ozzie Guillen suspended for tonight and tomorrow's games) went to lefty Matt Thornton, who dominated through three innings before giving up a two-run home run to Polanco, his second of the game, in the 14th that put Detroit up 8-6.

Everything seemed to be setting up as nicely as Jim Leyland could have hoped for, as the Tigers held that two-run lead heading into the bottom of the 14th with Joel Zumaya, by all accounts their best relief pitcher, taking the mound and looking for the save.

However, the White Sox were not about to go quietly. Orlando Cabrera hit the first pitch Zumaya threw—a 99 mph fastball—into left for a single. After AJ Pierzynski popped up, Quentin laced a double down the right field line to put men on second and third with one out for Jermaine Dye. Zumaya threw a good, 99 mph fastball low and away to Dye on 3-2, and all Dye could do with it was hit a slow chopper to short. However, Renteria made an awful play on the ball—literally, it was awful, as the ball did not take a bad bounce—and booted it, allowing Cabrera to score and putting runners on the corners with one out.

Quentin represented the tying run on third, and all the Sox needed was for Jim Thome to hit a sacrifice fly.

Thome struck out, and all of a sudden, the White Sox' chances seemed to go down the drain.

But Zumaya fell behind 2-0 to Nick Swisher, who was making just his second plate appearance of the game after replacing Paul Konerko in the 11th. After Zumaya fired a strike to make it 2-1, he went back to his gas—a move that blew up in his face.

The pitch speed read 99 mph. The location was low, at Swisher's knees, but over the heart of the plate.

Swisher took a short, sweet swing, and within seconds, the Chicago sky was lit up.

Not with lightning, like Monday night, but with fireworks, as it's traditional for the White Sox to shoot off fireworks after every home run and win at U.S. Cellular Field.

Swisher's walk-off, three-run homer took care of both of those.

With Minnesota's loss to Seattle—their second loss in as many days at Safeco Field—the White Sox find themselves back in first place in the AL Central, a game ahead of the Twins.

Before the series started, I wrote that this hometand was going to be critical for the White Sox' chances of making the playoffs this year.

I'd say they started off on the right foot.