Sox Survive Being Marted and Avoid Sweep

The Sox defeated Toronto 5-4 Thursday afternoon thanks to a 8th inning solo homer by The Gooch. Contreras pitched pretty well, but was hurt by some shoddy defense in the 4th which allowed 3 runs to score, trimming the Sox lead to one run.

Damaso Marte once again showed that he's just not the same pitcher that he had been before last season. He pitched 2/3 of an inning, allowing one run on 2 hits and 2 walks. That one run he allowed just so happened to be the tying run. As far as I'm concerned, Marte should be below Cotts in the LH pecking order out of the pen, at least until he shows more consistent command.

On an off baseball note, I went to the Bears scrimmage at Soldier Field tonight....they had 23,000 people there to watch a PRACTICE. This is a team coming off of a 5-11 season in which they had no quarterback. On top of that, those 23,000 paid $5 to see it. Talk about a cash cow....they cleared over $100,000 at the gate, not to mention what they made from concessions, for a practice. It is unbelievable how football has taken over this country. 23K is more than the Sox averaged per game the past few years, and the Bears drew that for a PRACTICE. Now, I love the Bears, but not as much as I love the Sox. If I had already been in Soldier Field since the renovations, I doubt that I would have bothered to go. I once heard someone say "They could turn the seats in Wrigley around backwards, and they'd still sell out every game". I'd bet the same would hold true at Soldier Field.