40 (26*)

Despite playing in their personal House of Horrors (McAfee Coliseum), the White Sox meat loafed (two outta three ain't bad) the A's over the weekend.

They should have won the first game of the series too, but Octavio Dotel. Horacio Ramirez, and D.J. Carrasco gave up four runs in relief of Gavin Floyd (5.2 innings pitched; six hits; one earned run) to leave the Sox on the short end of a 6-4 score.

The starters and the bullpen came through in fine fashion on Saturday and Sunday. John Danks tossed six innings of six-hit, one-run ball, and Carrasco, Matt Thornton, and Bobby Jenks (25th save) shut down the A's over the last three innings on Saturday for a 2-1 victory.

In the finale, Javy Vazquez held Oakland to one run in eight innings (four hits, eight strikeouts, no walks), and Clayton Richard blanked the A's in the ninth (no hits, two whiffs, no free passes) in a 13-1 Sox win that also featured four home runs by the Good Guys -- Carlos Quentin's major-league leading 34th tater, Jermaine Dye's 29th blast, Alexei Ramirez's grand slam (no, he wasn't eating breakfast at Denny's), and even a shot by Juan Uribe, his fifth.

The two wins allowed the Sox to keep pace with the Twins, who swept Seattle, and remain tied for first place in the division. They also cut the Magic Number to 40. The good news is that the Good Guys play 19 games at home, 19 on the road, and one home game -- the resumption of a suspended game -- on the road. The Update doesn't know how to characterize that last one. We get to bat last, but there's no home field advantage since this "home game" is taking place at Orioles Park at Camden Yards. (We're hoping to get to Baltimore at least once during the series.) Meanwhile, Minnesota plays three more at home, 14 on the road, six more at home, 10 more on the road, and then six at home, including three with the Sox. Hopefully, the Twins will continue to lose more than they win on the road and the Sox will continue to have success at the Cell. Go Sox!

On a personal note, yours truly accomplished two things I'd never done before. On the 149-yard par-3 seventh hole at beautiful Herndon Centennial Golf Course, using a seven iron, I hit a high draw that landed four inches from the cup and hopped left, into the jar. (See picture below showing where ball landed on green and in hole.) That was my first ace and my first eagle. One disaster hole kept me from breaking 80 for the first time, too. Maybe next week.