103

The White Sox toyed with the Royals last night. First, they staked KC to a two-run lead. Then, the Sox came back to take their own two-run lead. Next, they allowed the Royals to tie it up in the ninth. Finally, Paul Konerko put the A.L. Central's cellar-dwellers out of their misery by cranking a walkoff, two-run home run in the 15th inning to win the game 6-4. Paulie's seventh homer of the year was his first in what seemed like forever.

Other members of the Bash Brothers last night included Jim Thome, who was responsible for the Sox's first two runs on a blast (his 11th of the year and 518th of his career) that was the ninth longest home run ever hit in The Cell. Joe Crede joined the club with his 10th home run of the year and added an RBI double for good measure. All the starters were part of the hit parade, except Alexei Ramirez, who made up for his o-fer game with four barehanded web gems.

Speaking of Ramirez, he was involved in a controversial play at the plate, where he seemingly scored and later was called out. The Update's Special Correspondent Mike Sehr provided us with this eyewitness report: His foot seemed to slide over the catcher's foot and not come down on the plate. It was clear that the Umpire did not signal Ramirez safe. A bunch of us from the upper deck saw it and were screaming "Touch the plate!", but unfortunately he didn't and just trotted off to the dugout. After the run was on the board and after an argument by the Royal's manager, when the next batter was up and time was called in, Kansas City's catcher tagged the plate (unclear how that does anything) and Ramirez was called out and the run was taken off the board. It was the right call. It would have been nice if Cabrera, who was standing right there, had told him to tag the plate. The ball got away from KC's catcher and there was time to do it.

Octavio Dotel, who pitched 2.2 innings in relief, picked up the win. John Danks, the starter, came within an out of a Quality Start, tossing 5.2 innings of two-run ball. The bullpen, with one surprising exception, was perfect. Nick Masset, Matt Thornton, Scott Linebrink, Boone Logan, and Dotel all shut out the Royals. Only usually reliable Bobby Jenks gave up any runs -- the two in the ninth that sent the game into extra innings earned him a blown save. Newcomer (and old friend) Estaban Loiza was the only relief pitcher who didn't see action and he was warming up when Konerko ended things.

Unfortunately, Minnesota came back to beat the O's, so the Sox didn't pad their division lead, which remains at 1.5 games. The win does shrink the Magic Number by one, down to 103. The same two teams go at it tonight and the odds of a Sox victory have now inched up to slightly greater than 72%. Let's hope the percentages hold again. Go Sox!