131

Never mind that Juan Uribe hit a clutch two-run homer. Never mind that Jermaine Dye homered for his third consecutive game. Never mind that John Danks evened his record by throwing five innings of six-hit, two-run ball. Never mind that the White Sox took the rubber game of the series from the first-place Twins, 6-2. The big news yesterday was that Jim Thome stole his first base ever in a Sox uniform!

Thome was on first and Carlos Quentin was on second when Paul Konerko checked his swing on a 3-1 count. Konerko started to take off his leg guard and head to first while Quentin and Thome began moving to third and second, respectively. That's when things got interesting. The checked swing was appealed to the first-base umpire who called it a strike, meaning there was no walk and no automatic entitlement for the runners to advance. The Twins attempted to make a play on Thome, but he was already safely on second with what was credited as a stolen base. The theft marked his first since September 25, 2002, and was only the 20th of his career -- the previous 19 swiped during his 12 years with the Indians, none coming during his three years with the Phillies or his prior two seasons on the Sox. Thome is now tied with that legendary speedster John Sherman Lollar, who racked up his 20 during 18 seasons as well. Rickey Henderson had better watch out.

The Update is convinced that Uribe's home run is the direct result of Mark Buehrle using Uribe's bats to bang the dugout heater when he threw his temper tantrum after getting shelled two nights ago. The heater was the only target Buehrle hit all night and provided the most contact Uribe's bats had seen in a long time. But let's also give Uribe credit for his hard slide yesterday that broke up a double play and allowed a run to score. That was good baseball.

The win allowed the Sox to climb back into second place, only a game back of Minnesota -- and a half game up on Cleveland, 1.5 ahead of KC, and 2.5 in front of last-place Detroit. It reduced their Magic Number to 131, and it made the long flight out to Seattle for the start of a ten-game road trip a lot more pleasant. Let's hope that the Sox can avoid their usual West Coast swoon. The good news is that six of the games are against teams with losing records -- the Mariners and the Giants. Four of them are against the Angels, though, who are only a half-game behind the Red Sox for best record in the league. Go Sox!