90

So I'm looking at the crawl on ESPN on Friday, and I see Minnesota 20, Chicago 14, and I'm thinking "Damn, the Bears lost, but at least they blocked the extra point on one of the touchdowns." Then I remembered, it's not football season yet, so this must be one offensive (in more ways than one) baseball game. The Sox scored their season high in runs and still lost. What was going on at the Cell? I even checked the wind, and it was blowing in! Then in the nightcap, the Vikings kicked four field goals, er, the Twins scored 12 runs, and shut out the previously potent White Sox. Looks like Gavin Floyd is not the answer after all. But just when I'm prepared for more disaster, the weekend takes a big turn for the better.

Mark Buehrle pitches a masterpiece and the Sox hold the Twins, who scored 32 runs on Friday to one (it's the loneliest number) man crossing the plate. Better yet, the Sox announce that they've reached an agreement extending Buehrle's contract by four years at $14 million per year (say "million" like Dr. Evil does, it sounds better that way) and give him his limited no-trade clause. It's hard to believe that Jerry and Kenny gave in on that, but the Update is glad they did. It was the right thing to do. C'mon, he's durable, eats a lot of innings, and is good to boot. Not many pitchers could be 6-4 with this club behind them. He easily could be 9-3 or even better, with stronger relief pitching. To top off the weekend, Javier Vazquez and the boys tamed the Twins on Sunday. Jav pitched a complete game and Thome and Konerko hit back to back homers.

Now it's on to the All-Star break. The Sox are 13 games back of Detroit, with a Magic Number of 90. The good news is they have 25 games left with the Tigers and the Indians, so there's a chance to catch up. Go Sox!