101

No one can accuse the White Sox of "doggin' it" last night despite the presence of 600 pooches in attendance with the 25,104 human fans. To the contrary, the Sox looked like the first place team that they are in completing their sweep of the Royals, 6-2.

Jose Contreras continued his recent streak of superb pitching -- reminiscent of his 17-game winning streak in 2005- 2006. No Way, Jose handcuffed KC, allowing only four hits and one run in seven innings. With his splitter missing in action, Contreras relied on sliders, change-ups, and fastballs to pick up his sixth win of the season and lower his ERA to 2.76. Matt Thornton threw another inning of scoreless relief, and Nick Masset mopped up in the ninth, although he did allow Mark Teahan a meaningless home run.

Good pitching shouldn't come as a surprise, however. The Sox lead the Majors in fewest hits, runs, earned runs, and home runs, lowest ERA, and most Quality Starts. That's quite a turnaround from last year's abysmal performance.

On the offensive side of the ledger, Jim Thome took a high, outside pitch and poked it into the left field bullpen for his 12th homer of the season and 519th of his career. The team reached double figures in hits (10), with Thome, Orlando Cabrera, Jermaine Dye, and Pablo Ozuna each collecting a pair. The four runs that the Sox scored in the second inning provided just the cushion that Contreras needed to feel comfortable on the mound. So, according to Contreras, the good hitting led to the good pitching.

We interrupt this edition of The Update to report that the Sox drafted Gordon "Bend It Like" Beckham, a 21-year old shortstop out of Georgia with the eighth pick in the draft yesterday. In the sixth round, they selected Kenny Williams, Jr. With Oney Guillen already in the Sox system, it's clear they don't have an anti-nepotism policy. Now back to our regularly scheduled post.

Last night's victory completed the sweep of the Royals and allowed the Sox to extend their lead to 2.5 games over the Twins, who lost yesterday. At 101, the Magic Number is nearing double digits and will get there with a win against Minnesota, who comes to town for a four-game series -- Monday's game is a makeup of a rainout. While the Twins usually give the Sox fits, the good news is the Good Guys are playing .640 ball at home, and Minnesota is only .480 on the road. Bill James would say that means there's a 65.8% chance of a Sox win tonight. Go Sox!