60

"Revenge is a dish best served cold." Carlos Quentin took that saying to heart, serving up some cold revenge Wednesday when Ranger closer, C.J. Wilson, who had shown him up just before the All-Star break, tried to throw one over the dish in the bottom of the eighth with Texas up 8-7. Quentin smashed his second home run of the game and his league-leading 26th of the year with two men on to give the White Sox a 10-8 lead, capping off a five-run rally. Earlier, Q and Jim Thome (whom Wilson also showed up down in Texas) exacted revenge on George Bush's former team, if not on Wilson, by going yard. Q's first homer was a solo shot in the fifth inning, and Thome poked his 19th dinger of the season (526th lifetime), a three-run bomb, in the first inning.

Clayton Richard lasted four innings in his first Major League start. Although he gave up five runs (four earned), Richard did strike out seven while walking only one. Ozzie liked what he saw well enough to pencil in Richard for another start next Tuesday against the Twins in the Metrodome. (At least Ozzie was around long enough to watch the rookie's performance before the Sox manager got tossed in the seventh inning for arguing a strike called on Nick Swisher.) Octavio Dotel, who pitched a scoreless eighth inning, was the beneficiary of the Sox late-game comeback, and Bobby Jenks picked up his first save in 25 days and 19th on the year.

There were also two defensive plays worth taking a look at: Alexei Ramirez charged a slow grounder and while still moving forward, used his glove to flip the ball to Konerko for the out, and Jermaine Dye made a full-out dive to his left to snare a ball slicing towards the line. We won't dwell on the four errors that counterbalanced the web gems.

While the Sox were beating Texas, the Twins were falling to the Yankees yet again. (We told you that they'd have trouble on the road.) That means the lead is back up to 2.5 games and the Magic Number is down to 60. After an off day on Thursday, it's on to Detroit to play the Tigers, who've won four in a row. The road Sox versus the home Tigers is not a good matchup for the Good Guys, but that's what the schedule calls for. So, Go Sox!