117

The White Sox made nemesis C.C. Sabathia their latest victim as they defeated the Indians 4-1 last night behind a stellar performance from Jose Contreras and the bullpen. Contreras tossed six innings of four-hit, one-run, no-walk ball, and Matt Thornton, Octavio Dotel, Scott Linebrink, and Bobby Jenks combined for three innings of scoreless, hitless relief on only 27 pitches. The win was Contreras's fifth, and Jenks picked up his 11th save. The quality start was the team's 28th of the season and improved the record in those games to 20-7 (and one suspended game).

On the offensive side of the ledger, Ozzie's revamped lineup continued to deliver, garnering nine hits, including homers by Carlos Quentin and Jim Thome. (Quentin leads the league in homers with 11 and fewest at bats per homer.) Since Oz made the change to this lineup, the team is 6-0, so it's likely to continue for a while. Either Ozzie stumbled upon something or he actually knows what he's doing. Considering his all-time record as a manager is now 368-324 it could well be he's not the clown that many (including The Update) sometimes believe him to be.

By winning, the Sox reduced their Magic Number to 117 and maintained their lead over Minnesota at 1.5 games. (They've been in first place 30 days this season, compared to only one day in 2007, which we hereinafter refer to as the season that shall not be mentioned, and 35 days in 2006.) The Good Guys are 2.5 games up on Cleveland, whom they plan again tonight and tomorrow. The season series is now even at 2-2 with the Indians, and the all-time series, for those keeping score at home, is 996-964 in favor of the Sox. At the Cell, Chicago holds a 69-60 advantage.

Fun fact: You can pretty much stop watching a Sox game if one team or the other has a lead after six innings. When the Sox lead going into the seventh, they're 20-1; when the opponent leads, the Sox are 1-15. If our math is right, that means they're 3-4 when tied after six.

So to summarize, we need another quality start and enough offense to be leading after six innings to pretty much ensure our seventh win in a row with this lineup and overall, and our third in a row against the Tribe tonight. Go Sox!