33 (18*)

The White Sox lost two out of three to the Rays over the weekend. It probably should have been a sweep, but the Sox battled back from the edge of defeat to take the finale, with a little help from their old friend, Doug Eddings. "Who's he?" you ask. Eddings was the ump behind the plate in the 2005 post-season when A.J. Pierzynski ran to first on the dropped third strike call.

This time, it was the 10th inning, and A.J. was perched on second base, having alertly tagged when B.J. Upton unnecessarily pirouetted in the outfield on Carlos Quentin's fly ball. Jermaine Dye grounded to the left side, and A.J. got caught in a rundown between second and third and was tagged by Rays' shortstop Jason Bartlett. Only thing was, A.J. extended his arm so that third baseman Willy Aybar ran into it after he had thrown to Bartlett. A.J. fell down on contact and began yelling "obstruction." Eddings agreed and instead of calling A.J. out on the tag, awarded him third base on the fielder's interference. (A.J. should also have been awarded the Oscar for best actor for his convincing-enough performance.) The Rays walked Jim Thome, loading the bases and bringing Alexei Ramirez to the plate. Ramirez ripped a shot to right that scored A.J. and gave the Sox a 6-5 win.

Other heroes on Sunday included Carlos Quentin, who drove in the first two Sox runs with his Major League-leading 36th home run, and Thome, who two batters later drove in two more runs with his 27th homer and 534th of his career. But those homers would have gone for naught and the A.J. and Alexei show in the tenth never would have taken place but for a piece of clutch hitting by Paul Konerko. With two out in the bottom of the ninth and a 3-2 count on him, Paulie laced a single to left. Pinch runner Brian Anderson looked like he was going to be out trying to score from second base on the hit, but the Rays' catcher dropped the ball, allowing B.A. to slide in safely with the tying run. Mercy! as Hawk would say.

A couple of losses by Minnesota against the Angels and Sunday's thrilling win at the Cell allowed the Sox to regain the lead they had lost earlier in the weekend to the Twins. It now stands at a half game, and the Magic Number is down to 33. The Sox travel to Baltimore to play one home game (the continuation of the suspended game against the O's in Chicago) and three road games there. Let's hope their recent success against the A's bespeaks an ability to beat all the teams whose names are vowels . Go Sox!

*days until our future grandson's due date