67

White Sox fan Barack Obama engineered a bailout of Detroit. His favorite team came up with its own bailout plan for Detroit over the weekend. The Sox lost three of four to the Tigers, falling from a tie for first in the division to 2.0 games back of the Bengals. The four games had only two final scores, 5-1 (Game 1 on Friday and Sunday's game) and 4-3 (Game 2 on Friday and Saturday's game).

After the opener, the Sox got some pretty decent starting pitching -- Bartolo Colon (7.0 IP, 6H, 3R), Gavin Floyd (6.2 IP, 6H, 2R), and Clayton Richard (8.0IP, 3H, 1R) -- but could not count on the bullpen. In Game 2 on Friday, Scott Linebrink gave up two hits, a walk, and the winning run and retired only one batter. On Saturday, Bobby Jenks gave up three hits and the tying run in 1.1 innings, and D.J. Carrasco gave up three hits and the winning run without getting anyone out in the 10th inning. Fortunately, Tony Pena did not blow the 5-1 lead that Ricahrd handed him, and the Sox won the finale to keep from dropping four games behind Detroit in the division race.

Colon's and Richard's performance creates an interesting problem for Ozzie. Colon's Quality Start seemingly assured his return to the rotation after a stint on the DL and some minor league rehab. However, Richard, who was slated to return to the bullpen (where he started the season) to be the other lefty (besides Matt Thornton), made the decision a tough one. Richard has been outstanding in his last 16 innings pitched, giving up only two runs in that stretch. And to complicate things even more, Freddy Garcia looked good in his start for Kannapolis. Now if only we had to worry about having too much relief pitching.

The weekend's results leave the Sox with a Magic Number of 67, as they head up to the Metrodome to play a series with the Twins. The Pale Hose are 2-11 in their last 13 games there, so there's no place like Metrodome. John Danks will go tonight, Mark "of Zero" Buehrle follows on Tuesday, and Colon will pitch on Wednesday. Ozzie is saving Contreras for the Yankees, because the Twins run better and Jose has trouble holding men on. Go Sox!