46

The White Sox maintained, then lost, then regained their lead in the Central Division over the weekend, beating the Red Sox on Friday and Sunday and losing to Boston on Saturday, while the Twins won their first two over the Royals and then dropped Sunday's game in extra innings. Saturday's loss cost the Pale Hose more than just the game, though, as Jose Contreras injured his Achilles tendon while covering (sort of) first base and is out for the season. In the wake of the injury and other developments (or lack of development in the case of the guys who were sent down to Charlotte), the Sox made a flurry of personnel moves. To save you the price of a scorecard, we'll review the roster for you:

• On the DL: Contreras joined Scott Linebrink (still two weeks away from being ready to return) and Joe Crede (who knows when his back will allow him to come back). Andrew Sisco's there too, but he's not on the 40-man roster anymore.
• Called Up: RHP Lance Broadway and INF Chris Getz followed recent call-up RHP Adam Russel to the big league club.
• Sent Down: Struggling LHP Boone Logan, last year's phenom INF Josh Fields, up-and-down RHP Ehren Wasserman, and recent starter LHP Clayton Richard are all back playing AAA ball.
• Acquired by Trade: Royals' LHP Horacio Ramirez, who has thrown almost half of his 16.2 innings in relief this season against the Sox -- without giving up a run-- and of course you remember Ken Griffey, Jr., who's hitting .200 since coming over. Paul Konerko was supposed to be odd-man out when Junior joined the team, but Paulie's hitting .304 since the trade.

The two wins over the weekend went to Mark Buehrle (fine effort) on Friday and Gavin Floyd on Sunday (good enough to win) and were powered by Orlando Cabrera's clutch hitting in the first game and home runs from the heart of the order in the third game -- Carlos Quentin's 32nd, Jermaine Dye's 27th, and Jim Thome's 24. Those three, the 3-4-5 hitters in the order, are on pace to hit 45, 38, and 34 home runs, respectively. In the post-steroid era, those numbers are not too shabby.

The Sox now stand one-half game ahead of the Twins in the division race and have a Magic Number of 46. They face the Red Sox in the fourth game of this wrap-around series on Monday, with John Danks, who's turned into a real Hoss, taking the hill against the Carmine Hose. Go Sox! (White Sox, that is.)