50

So last night was my wife's first night home in more than a week, and after chowing down on Italian Beef sandwiches (sweet and wet) made from genuine ingredients that she brought back from Chicago, I spent the rest of the night talking with her instead of listening to the White Sox play the Tigers. I did check the score briefly, found out that the Sox were losing 6-1 in the bottom of the fifth, and decided that I wasn't really missing anything. Boy, was I wrong!

Last night's game marked one of the great Sox comebacks ever. After Gavin Floyd continued the starters' streak of getting shelled early, the bullpen -- all seven members of it -- largely held Detroit in check long enough for Sox bats to awaken and overtake the Tigers in 14 innings.

Dr. Longball made another house call, as the Sox racked up four homers to fuel the comeback. Trailing 6-2 in the sixth, Paul Konerko (odd man out now that Ken Griffey, Jr., is on board) blasted one to left-field to narrow the gap to 6-4. In the seventh, Carlos Quentin, who had four hits on the night, poked his 29th homer just over the wall in left to make it 6-5. The next inning, Alexei Ramirez tied the game with his tenth home run of the season. Finally, in the 14th inning, after the Tigers had pushed across two runs to take an 8-6 lead and the Sox had rallied to get one of those back, Nick Swisher came to the plate with two men on and two out. On a 2-1 count, Swisher, who entered the game in the 11th after Konerko had been lifted for a pinch runner in the 10th, drove one into the crowd in center for a walkoff, three-run home run.

Meanwhile, Seattle came from behind again to steal one from the Twins. The combo (speaking of combos, I should have grilled some Italian Sausage to go with my Beef) of the Sox winning and Twins losing put the Good Guys back into sole possession of first place, one game ahead of the Twinkies. And it sliced (thin, like Italian Beef) the Magic Number to 50. Warning: Judy also brought back Vienna hot dogs and all the fixin's, so there'll be another food-filled post coming soon. Go Chicago delicacies! Go Judy! Go Sox!