118

With apologies to Robert Browning, the White Sox are in first place, all's right with the world. The Sox finished up their 10-game West Coast swing by winning all three games against the Giants in San Francisco to post a 7-3 mark on the road trip. The Update laid out a realistic road map for success and the Sox followed it even after we got greedy and amended the route mid-trip. Win two out of three from Seattle to get it started. Check. Split with the Angels. Check, but only after scaring us by losing the first two. Win two out of three from the Giants, no wait, make that a sweep in San Fran. Check. As a result of this success, the Sox return home to the Cell with a Magic Number of 118 and in first place, 1.5 games up on the slumping Indians (thank you, Reds for sweeping them); 2.0 games ahead of the Royals and Twins; and 6.5 games in front of the Tigers.

Speaking of first place, this won't rival 2005 when the Good Guys led the division every day of the season, but so far, they've held down the top spot more than they haven't. The Sox have been in first place for 28 days, second for 14 days, third for 5, and fourth for 3. Knock on (Wilbur) wood, they haven't been in fifth at all. And with yesterday's win, the Sox improved to 5-2 on Sundays. They also have winning records on Thursdays (4-1), Fridays (4-2), and Saturdays (5-3). The rest of the week, not so good: Mondays, they're 1-4, so it's a good thing we're off today; Tuesdays, the team is 2-3; and Wednesdays, the Sox are only 2-5.

During the team's five-game winning streak, the bats have come alive. The Sox reached double figures in hits four times and have averaged 10 hits per game. The pitching has been equally impressive. Each of the five starters contributed a quality start (at least six innings with no more than three runs allowed). Considering that the Sox are now 19-7 when receiving a quality start, it's no wonder that they've won during this stretch. What The Update did wonder was whether the Sox would be hurt by not being able to use the DH in road interleague games. As we noted last week, the pitchers could hardly have hit worse than Jim Thome has been hitting lately (though he did have a game winner the other night), and the sweep of the Giants suggests that it didn't seem to matter. A little historical research shows that the Sox went 7-2 in N.L. parks in 2005 and 2006, when the team was winning 90 games or more. The Sox were 2-7 last year, when the team generally sucked. Overall, the Sox are 51-50 when not allowed a DH in the interleague games.

That's a lot of numbers, but we always want to give you your money's worth, and since you pay nothing for The Update, we're pretty sure you're getting it. So there's nothing left to say, except Go Sox!