80

How sweep it is! The White Sox won 5-1, completing the sweep of the Cubs in front of 39,573 fans at the Cell and a national TV audience on ESPN. Mark Buehrle, who seems to have put his early season problems behind him (at least for now), was brilliant. Buehrle threw seven innings, gave up only one (unearned) run, six hits, two walks, and whiffed five batters in evening his record at 6-6. In relief, Scott Linebrink faced three batters (thanks to a 5-4-3 double play) in a scoreless eighth to earn his 19th hold. Bobby Jenks, who warmed up while it was still a save situation but came in anyway after the Sox grabbed a four-run lead, gave up a walk and a double before closing out the game on a snappy double play and a grounder to Alexei Ramirez.

The double play in the ninth, one of four on the night, came on a sharp liner to Nick Swisher at first, who made a perfect throw to Orlando Cabrera to double up the runner at second. Swisher was also involved in an odd DP in the third inning. With runners on first and second and one out, Ramirez snared a line drive and threw to first to try to complete the double play. Swish was able to catch the ball but fell on his ass doing so, couldn't get the out at first, and so was forced to throw from a sitting position to Cabrera to double up the runner on second -- a rare 4-3-6 double play. Ramirez added a nifty backhanded grab of a ground ball over second that he flipped with his glove to Cabrera while continuing to his right and got the force. Also worth noting was a ball that went right between Joe Crede's legs, which led to the Cubs' only run of the game. The error was Crede's 15th of the year, a pretty high total for a third-sacker who is thought of as Gold Glove-caliber.

All five Sox runs came on homers. Carlos Quentin hit his 19th (a 405 foot blast in the fourth), Brian Anderson poked his 4th (a two-run shot in the fifth), and Jim Thome clobbered his 15th of the year and 522nd of his career (a 421 foot drive in the eighth). The Sox improved to 42-15 when they go yard, and 25-7 when they do it more than once in a game. They're now 27-11 at home, a .711 winning percentage. There must be some promotional tie-in that the Sox and 7-11 can arrange to take advantage of that number. At that rate, the Sox should win five of the seven games left on this homestand -- three with Cleveland and four with Oakland. But we Sox fans are greedy; we want two more sweeps.

Interesting Notes, Part I: Cub manager, Lou Piniella, was tossed in the second inning for arguing that a checked swing was actually a strike. While replays show Piniella may well have been right, he committed the unpardonable sin of coming onto the field to argue balls and strikes. The ejection seemed a bit quick, but The Update was happy to see Sweet Lou go and leave his team without its leader. It's hard to say that really made a difference in the game, but then again, neither did the blown strike call as Crede struck out anyway.

Interesting Notes, Part II: In the eighth inning, Swisher had a 3-2 count on him when the pitch struck him. It was scored as a hit-by-pitch rather than a walk, even though it was ball four. We don't know why it would be one over the other. Not that it matters.

With the win, the Magic Number moved down to 80. The lead over the Twins moved back to 1.5 games. At the halfway point of the season, the Good Guys sit atop the Central Division with a 46-35 record. The 11-game over .500 record matches their high for the season, last attained on June 10. Let's keep it going. Go Sox!