65 (Day two)

There's not much to say about last night's game. The Sox failed to pull off the sweep of Kansas City and as a result, fell to 8.5 games behind Detroit in the Central Division race, and one game behind Boston in the Wild Card hunt. The Magic Number remains at 65. The lack of progress is disappointing because the Tigers show no sign of slowing down and have established their lead by beating the KCs of the world. Taking two out of three, like the Sox did, ain't bad, but it's not what you need when you're trying to catch up.

The pitching and fielding last night was problematic. The hitting was less than needed to compensate. Jermaine Dye continued to have the hot hand though, thumping his 30th home run, and Juan Uribe, back in the starting lineup after a short benching by Ozzie, chipped in with his 14th dinger. The only other good news is that Jim Thome's back spasms are improving and Paul Konerko's x-rays came back negative. (That reminds me of the old Yogi Berraism: They x-rayed my brain and found nothing.) Today's an off-day, so they'll both have another day to heal before the team takes on Toronto. Go Sox!