154

The White Sox gained a small measure of revenge on Tampa Bay for eliminating them from the playoffs last year. The Sox squeezed past the Rays, 3-2 behind John Danks's Quality Plus start, mostly solid relief, and a 14-hit attack. Danks, who won the only playoff game against the Rays last year, had their number again Thursday. He picked up his first win of the season by tossing six innings of two-hit, one-run ball. Danks struck out eight, but walked four, while lowering his ERA to 0.75. Speaking of ERAs, Octavio Dotel and Matt Thornton continued their perfect seasons, each posting an inning of scoreless relief and keeping their ERAs at 0.00. Big Bobby Jenks was Bad Bobby tonight, giving up one run on a hit and a walk, but still notched his third save of the young season.

At the plate, Jermaine Dye was the star, poking a two-run home run (his third) to go along with two other hits in his five at bats. A.J. Pierzynski (3 for 4), Josh Fields (3 for 5), and leadoff man (at least for this game) Chris Getz (2 for 5) all had multihit games. Paul Konerko, Alexei Ramirez, and Brian Anderson each kicked in a hit, with B.A. scoring what proved to be the winning run. By the way, Scott Podsednik was 0 for 4 with an error in centerfield for Charlotte, so B.A. needn't start to worry about Pods replacing him just yet.

Rays manager, Joe Maddon -- we like him because he too uses "meat loaf" to mean winning two out of three -- was ejected in the sixth inning. But his presence or absence had little to do with the game. It was a case of the Sox pitchers being in control and the Sox batters not squandering all of their chances -- it could have been a blowout if they hadn't left 11 men on base.

With the win, the Sox (5-4) crept into a tie for first with Detroit and KC. The Magic Number fell to 154. And the Sox proved that revenge is a dish best served cold. Well, actually, it was 72 degrees in the dome. That must be the ideal temperature inside, as I remember that the thermostat in the Astrodome was also set at 72 degrees. Go Sox!