135

Jose Contreras pitched a five-hit, complete-game shutout yesterday afternoon, leading the White Sox to a 3-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins in the Metrodome. (By the way, the Update's crack research staff determined that the temperature inside is a pleasant 70 degrees, a touch cooler than 72 degree standard set by the Grandaddy of Domes, the Astrodome, back in the day.) Along the way, Contreras managed to cool off Torii Hunter, ending Hunter's 23-game hitting streak. Contreras's effort was the 16th consecutive outing in which a Sox starter has pitched at least six innings. (The starters have been streaky all season long, notching earlier streaks of five and three games in which they went six innings, sandwiched around two streaks of three games and a single game in which they didn't.) The complete game means that Bobby Jenks didn't get a save in a Sox win for only the fifth time all season. Before yesterday, Jenks had saved 73.3% of the Sox's victories, an obscenely high percentage. (Consider that at that rate, Jenks would have had 66 saves in last year's 90-win season.)

Yesterday's victory and Cleveland's defeat leave the Sox with a Magic Number of 135 over both the Indians and the (now) first-place Tigers. The Sox moved ahead of the Twins into third place in the Central Division, 4.0 games back of Detroit. They've got a good chance to gain some ground as the Kansas City Royals come to the Cell for a three-game set. The pitching match-ups look good, with Jon Garland taking on Perez, Mark Buehrle facing Elarton, and Javier Vazquez hurling against De La Rosa. In other words, the Sox avoid having to face Gil Meche, KC's $55 million man. And the schedulemakers have the Sox in Chicago for their next 15 games (17 days). After the Royals, the Yankees come to town for three games, the Sox play three at Wrigley, and then host three each against the A's and Devil Rays. It's time to get that home field advantage back. Go Sox!