13

First things first. The cute little guy on the left is the reason The Update hasn't published in a while. Evan Winsor Hadden was born on September 8, 2008, and his grandmother and I took off for Chicago to visit him and his parents. We've been totally preoccupied ever since, and everyday things, like writing about the White Sox, have taken a back seat. But now, we're back and resuming our normal lives, so let's talk Sox.

After being rained out on Friday and Saturday, the Sox swept a doubleheader from the Tigers on Sunday. They tried to give both games away, but couldn't quite manage it. In the opener, Javier Vazquez pitched a beauty, blanking Detroit for 7.2 innings. Bobby Jenks came in to mop up a 4-0 game in the ninth, but wound up giving up two runs on a home run. Jenks doesn't pitch well with a lead like that, and Sunday was no exception. Once the margin shrunk to 4-2, he bore down and closed out the Bengals. In the nightcap, the Sox jumped out to a 7-0 lead, the bullpen gave away all of it -- the last four runs on a grand slam -- and pinch-hitter DeWayne Wise smacked a grand slam of his own to put the Good Guys back on top, 11-7.

The win, combined with Minnesota's loss to the recently hapless Orioles -- the last good ball they played was against the Sox -- cut the Magic Number to 13 and increased our division lead to 1.5 games. The Sox are scheduled to play four in New York starting tonight -- we say scheduled because the record rains that drenched Chicago over the weekend have moved East -- then three in KC, before taking on the Twins in the Metrodome (where the Sox are 1-6 this year). We finish the season by entertaining the Indians at the Cell, and then there's that little matter of making up the rained out game with Detroit. Hopefully, it won' t be necessary -- for a good reason. The Piranhas meanwhile play three at Cleveland and then four at Tampa Bay before the Sox visit them. They finish up with three at home against KC. So we have pretty similar schedules: we each play three against the Indians, the Royals, and each other, and our four games at New York are nicely countered by their four in Tampa -- plus our make up Detroit. Buckle your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride. Go Sox!