An Unusual Inning

by Mike DePilla

Thursday, March 3, 2011
Bio | Previous | Home

Strange things happen in spring games, but I find it hard to believe the odds of anything else could be longer than these two things happening in one inning:

1. Paul Konerko hits a triple.
2. Dayan Viciedo draws a walk.

That's kind of thing that you only see in Rand McNally, where people wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat Bartolo Colon! Nonetheless, the Sox pulled off the feat in the 8th inning today, and for good measure both runners scored later on another rare occurrence, a Tyler Flowers double.

The rest of the game saw the Sox finally using those long wooden things they hold in their hands when they walk up to home plate, as the team amassed 11 hits including three for extra bases (the Konerko triple, the Flowers double, and a homer by Alex Rios, the team's first of the spring).

Further proof that this Sox spring game was weird? They won.

Though it means absolutely nothing, it is pretty cool that the Sox starting pitchers have yet to give up a hit in the first four starts. John Danks, picking up where Gavin Floyd, Mark Buehrle and Edwin Jackson left off, extended the streak with two hitless, scoreless frames. That streak may get snapped tomorrow when Jake Peavy takes the hill for the first time, to work mainly on fastballs. I'll be watching on MLB Network, will you?