37 (24*)

Recent call-up, Clayton Richard, won his first big league game on Monday against the Mariners, 5-0. Richard, pitching in the injured Jose Contreras's spot in the rotation, came up big, blanking the M's on five hits over six innings. Richard got himself into a jam in the first inning, with men on first and third and no outs. Nick"Dirty 30" Swisher bailed him out, snaring Raul Ibanez's chopper hit down the first base line, stepping on first for the unassisted put out, and throwing home to nail Ichiro, who was trying to score, for the rare 3-2 double play. Matt Thornton, Octavio Dotel, and Bobby Jenks (pitching in a non-save situation because the recent spate of lopsided wins have kept him on the shelf) each contributed one inning of scoreless relief to preserve the shutout. (Richard was a likely candidate for a shaving cream pie in the face, courtesy of Toby Hall, who appeared to injure his shoulder when pulling that prank on Jermaine Dye the night before. Hall, who was wearing an icepack after the incident, claimed to be fine, and presumably was ready to initiate Richard. Turns out, Richard got a beer shower instead.)

The Sox failed to hit four home runs like they had the last two games, but they did go yard twice, boosting their Major League-leading total to 184. Swisher hit a solo shot in the fourth inning (his 19th), and Jim Thome did the same in the fifth (his 26th). Ken Griffey opened the scoring by driving in Thome with a sac fly in the second. The next inning Carlos Quentin doubled home A.J. Pierzynski, who himself had doubled, and Alexei Ramirez singled to drive in Q. (This marked the third consecutive game in which the Cuban Missile has driven in at least one run, a career high.) All told, the Sox had 14 hits for a .412 team batting average for the game; they had 24 total bases to rack up a .705 slugging percentage for the night. And they're doing it without one of their offensive weapons, Joe Crede. By the way, Crede played five innings for Triple-A Charlotte on Tuesday, striking out and flying out to right, while notching three assists in the field.

The win moves the Sox to a season-high 19 games over .500 and improves their record at the Cell to 44-19, a .698 winning percentage. With Minnesota beating up on Oakland, the Sox simply maintain their 1.0 game lead over the Twinkies, but do cut the Magic Number to 37. The Good Guys have one more game against Seattle, on Wednesday afternoon when Gavin Floyd faces R.A. Dickey, a knuckleballer who's already thrown 11 wild pitches this season. The Sox will be looking for a sweep of the series, and a win in the finale will give them one more win than they had all last season. Go Sox!

*24 days left until our future grandson's due date