79

The White Sox dropped two of three in Minnesota over the weekend, but let's not dwell on that. As we head into the All-Star break, let's look at how the Sox have gotten to where they are -- two games over .500 at 45-43 (they were 50-38 after the same number of games last year), in second place, 3.5 games behind Detroit in the A.L. Central, with a Magic Number of 79:

• The Sox are one game over .500 both at home (22-21) and on the road (23-22)
• They seem to be nocturnal, racking up a 29-24 record at night, but only a 16-19 mark during the day.
• The Sox are three games under .500 against the American League -- 5-9 vs. the East; 22-19 vs. the Central; and 7-9 vs. the West -- but five games over .500 against the National League.
• They do better when getting a Quality Start (at least six innings without giving up four earned runs) than their opponents do; the Sox are 34-10, while the opposition is only 26-18.
• The Sox do quite well when hitting a homer (36-20) and of course even better when hitting more than one in a game (23-8).
• They are 41-14 when scoring more than three runs, while their foes are 36-12 in that situation. The good news here is that the Sox have scored more than three runs 55 times to the opponents' 48.
• The Good Guys are only 4-29 when not scoring more than three runs; the Bad Guys are 7-33. Again, the good news is that the Sox have scored less than four runs only 33 times; the other team has done it 40 times.
• Finally, the Sox are NOT the greatest show on turf, going 4-7, while mowing down the opposition when playing on grass (pun intended) to the tune of 41-35.

All in all, there's reason for optimism for the rest of the season. The hitting has finally come around. Paulie and J.D. are each batting .302; A.J. and Pods are at .299; Ramirez has raised his average up to .281; Thome is better than 1 for 4, with a .255 average; and even the rookies have started to hit -- Beckham is up to .271 and Getz is hitting .258. Dye (20 HR), Konerko (16), and Thome (14) each has a decent chance of crunching 30 homers for the season. And Carlos Quentin -- he of the 36 dinger season last year -- is doing well in his rehab assignment, batting .353 through Saturday. That means it likely won't be long before Q is back in the Bigs.

On the pitching front, despite having gotten knocked around the last few games, the starters other than Clayton Richard have been pitching well. The relievers are holding up their end of the bargain, the last few games excepted. Bartolo Colon pitched well in his minor league debut with Charlotte, throwing five innings of two-hit, one-run ball. Colon likewise could be back in the Majors shortly after the break.

The Sox need to win 40 of their remaining 74 games to reach the 85 mark, and 85 wins could be enough to win the A.L.'s weakest division this year. Playing .600 ball the rest of the way -- a tough task -- will result in about a 90 win season, which should clearly be enough to repeat as division champs. (Cue Queen's greatest hits CD).

Anyway, enjoy the All-Star break and come back prepared to root on the Sox. Go Update readers! Go Sox!