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Clayton Richard is the weak link in the White Sox rotation, which he demonstrated in spades yesterday. Richard, pitched the first inning and faced four batters in the second, all of whom scored on a Grand Slam, before giving way to D. J. Carrasco. Official line for Richard: 1 IP; 6 R; 4 H; and 3 BB. Unofficial line: He sucked. Again. In his last eight starts, Richard has lasted six innings only once. That doesn't give the team much of a chance to win, and they didn't, losing to Cleveland 10-8.

The Sox made it interesting, coming back from a 9-2 deficit in the third inning to make it 9-8 after five, but they couldn't quite make it all the way back. The hitting was good enough to win almost any game -- except one where the pitching is as bad as it was yesterday. At least the relievers other than Carrasco (2.1 IP; 3 R; 3 H; 5 BB) looked good -- Aaron Poreda (2.1 IP), Octavio Dotel (2.0), Matt Thornton (1.0), and newcomer Tony Pena (1.0) -- shut down the Indians. Or maybe they were just tuckered out from running around the bases so much against Richard and Carrasco.

Anyway, it's on to Minnesota for the first time this season. The Twins are coming off a sweep by the Yankees in the Metrodome, so this may be a good time to face them, but the Sox have a history of not playing well in the Great North -- 1-9 there last year. The Good Guys are 1.5 games ahead of Minnesota and trail idle Detroit by 2.5 games. We've got John Danks, Gavin Floyd, and Mark Buehrle lined up to pitch, so maybe we can get off to a good start this year. Go Sox!