71

Turnabout is fair play. After watching Tampa Bay come from behind to win by a run on Tuesday night, the White Sox returned the favor last night, tripping the Rays 4-3. With the Sox trailing 3-0 in the sixth inning, Scott Podsednik smacked his fourth homer of the season to cut the lead to 3-1. In the seventh, after two were down, Gordon Beckham coaxed a walk from Rays starter James Shields. Pods scratched out an infield single off reliever Randy Choate, and both he and Becks advanced another base on Jason Bartlett's throwing error. Chad Bradford came in to face Alexei Ramirez, but never threw a pitch, as he injured himself warming up. Dan Wheeler subbed for Bradford and gave up a line shot to center that B.J. Upton started in on and then watched go over his head for a two-run triple that tied the game. Joe Nelson, the fifth Rays' pitcher of the inning, yielded a single to Jermaine Dye that scored the Missile and gave the Sox a 4-3 lead they didn't relinquish. On the night, the first three batters in the Sox lineup had six of the team's seven hits (Carlos Quentin had the other), drove in all four runs, and scored three of them.

Carlos Torres, the 26 year old who spent five and a half years in the minors, was on the mound in place of the injured John "I've got blisters on my fingers" Danks. Torres came through with a Quality Start (more on that later), throwing six innings while giving up three runs on six hits, three walks. D.J. Carrasco pitched one inning of scoreless relief and was the pitcher of record, while Matt Thornton went two innings without giving up a run to earn his first save of the season. Ozzie says he was giving Bobby Jenks a rest, after Big Bobby pitched two nights in a row. Hopefully, that's all Jenks needs to round back into form, but he's only pitched in three games in the prior 10 days, given blowouts and the All-Star break.

As for the Quality Start, charter Update subscriber Les Reiter questions if it's a legit stat or the creation of agents to get their clients more money. He points out that you could give up three earned runs in six innings, which works out to a 4.50 ERA, and still notch a QS. Well, Les, there seems to be more to it than that. First of all, there's a high correlation to winning games -- the Sox are 37-11 when they receive a QS. Second, there are QSs where the pitcher gives up fewer than three earned runs and goes longer than six innings, so the ERA is not simply 4.50. Third, runs are harder to come by in the late innings. The Sox have allowed 311 runs in a total of 558 first through sixth innings in 2009, for an average of .557 runs per inning. They've given up 124 runs in 263 innings, for an average of .471 runs per inning. The difference of .08 runs per inning is huge; over nine innings, that works out to .72 runs. That works out to 117 runs over the course of a season, and the Sox and their opponents are both on pace to score only 750 runs this year. So, yeah, a Quality Start is a meaningful stat.

Except for the Sox, the entire Central Division lost last night. That leaves the Sox trailing Detroit by a game and leading Minnesota by a game and a half. The Magic Number is down to 71 and shrinking rapidly. One more game with the Rays this afternoon. Go Sox!