139

The Magic Number finally moved off of 143, with the White Sox winning twice over the weekend and the Indians losing two games. That slices the MN to 139, and leaves the Sox in fourth place, four games back of Cleveland and Detroit. The wins were encouraging. On Saturday, the Good Guys racked up ten hits, their first double-digit total in forever, and six runs, while getting a Quality Start from Jon Garland, who earned his first win of the season. Bobby Jenks picked up his ninth save. On Sunday, A.J. Pierzynski smashed a two-run, game-tying home run in the eighth inning and drove in what proved to be the winning run in the tenth, with a two-out single. A.J.'s hits were among the nine that the Sox collected on the day. Bad Bobby notched his tenth save, striking out the side, the last batter on a 96 mph fastball.

While 19 hits in two games isn't bad, it's too early to declare the hitting drought over. Among the ten players who batted for the Sox on Sunday, only Darin Erstad at .267 and newcomer Ryan Sweeney at .250 were hitting .230 or better. The pitching hasn't been half bad, but the batting has held the team down to a .500 record (14-14). The weekend's good hitting needs to continue if the Sox are to have a chance against the Twins in the upcoming series in Minnesota. The good news is that we're 9-7 on the road. The better news is that they're 8-9 at home, which is usually one of the great home-field advantages in all of baseball. The best news is that the Sox don't have to face Johan Santana this series and Joe Mauer is on the DL. The Sox have got a fighting chance to do some damage up there, but to do that, they need to do some fighting. Not literally, of course -- although don't put anything past sometimes pro-wrestler Pierzynski -- but they have to show the kind of fighting spirit that they did in the two wins this past weekend. Go Sox!