117

The White Sox won their fourth game in a row, 10th of their last 13, and are on that hot streak we've all been waiting for. Monday night, Jim Thome hit his 550th home run, a three-run shot, that broke a 2-2 tie in the eighth inning. The Sox tacked on one more run on a bases loaded walk to provide the final 6-2 margin over the Oakland A's.

After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, the Good Guys got one of the runs back in the bottom half of the frame when Jermaine Dye sac flied home Scottie Pods, who had gotten on base with a walk. (By the way, the Sox are 8-2 since Pods and Alexei Ramirez took over the 1-2 spots in the order.) A.J. Pierzynski tied the game with a solo homer in the fifth (and in the process, lifted his batting average over .300), setting the stage for Thome's big blast later on.

Gavin Floyd got the Sox starters back in the groove of yielding fewer than four runs, one day after that streak had been broken. Floyd toiled for seven innings and limited the A's to two runs on four hits and three walks. For the third game in a row, he struck out eight batters. Matt Thornton was brilliant in relief, striking out the three batters he faced, throwing 10 of his 12 pitches for strikes. On the radio broadcast, D.J. started making bird sounds and referred to him as a vulture -- for swooping in like a bird of prey and picking up the win again when the Sox scored after he was finished pitching. Bobby Jenks had been warming up, but when the lead expanded to four runs -- a non-save situation -- Scott Linebrink came in instead and pitched a scoreless ninth.

The win lifts the 25-25 Sox back to .500 for the first time since May 3 when they were 12-12 and 1.5 games back of first-place KC. Now, they're in second place, 3.5 games behind Detroit. The Magic Number is 117. They've won the first game of each of the last five series and have the previous four series. Let's win Tuesday's game so we don't have to sweat the last game in order to take the series. Go Sox!