53

The White Sox lost two out of three to Kansas City -- Kansas City? -- to fall out of first place in the A.L. Central for the first time since May 16. It's too painful to dwell on the details. Suffice it to say that the team doesn't play nearly as well on the road -- this finished up a 10-game trip to Detroit, Minnesota, and KC that we predicted would be a ball buster -- as it does at home.

The good news is that the Sox are the home team in 17 of their next 20 games (one of those "home" games actually will be played in Baltimore; it's the completion of the suspended game started at the Cell), while the first-place Twins, who've been having their own troubles away from home, play only nine games in the Metrodome during that same stretch. One caveat, however, the Sox play four games against Boston, and three against Detroit, Tampa Bay, Oakland (on the road) during that time, so no one should think that this is going to be easy. The other games are against the Royals and the Mariners, but we just witnessed how "easy" the Royals turned out to be.

The Magic Number for the Sox over the Twins is 53, while the Twins' Magic Number over the Sox is 52. That's how it works when you have a half-game lead, like the Twins now have over the Sox. Let's hope that the home cookin' makes a difference. Go Sox!