149

The streak is finally over.  On Sunday, the White Sox managed to win a game without hitting multiple home runs, although they did rely on the longball for the winning margin.  For the third game in a row, the Sox got a late-inning blast to power a win over Seattle.  This time, Paul Konerko supplied the heroics, smashing his eighth tater of the season in the eighth inning to give the Sox a 3-2 lead that held up for the win.  Konerko previously had (ground-rule) doubled Andruw Jones (on first with a single) to third, where Carlos Quentin knocked him in with a grounder to short.  Small ball accounted for the Good Guys' first run:  Juan Pierre led off the game for the Sox, was hit by a pitch, moved to second on Gordon Beckham's single, stole third (his 9th swipe of the year), and scored on a past ball.  That should have made Ozzie happy.  And we know it made John Danks happy.  Danks, 8.0 IP, 2 R, 2 H, 0 BB, and 5 K, improved to 3-0 and lowered his ERA to 1.55.  Bobby Jenks pitched a scoreless ninth (though he did give up a hit and a walk) to earn his fourth save.

Saturday's game was even more exciting.  The Sox got another walk-off homer, this one from Alex Rios, to beat Seattle, this time 5-4.  Earlier in the ninth inning, Konerko clubbed his seventh dinger of the season to draw the Sox within one run.  And this all followed a fifth inning double by Alexei Ramirez, which scored Rios and Mark Teahen.  Rios's blast wouldn't have been necessary if Jenks hadn't given up two runs in the ninth.  Somehow it doesn't seem fair that he gets the win after having pitched so poorly.  The good news is that the prior eight innings were well pitched.  Freddy Garcia (not so fast on making those flight reservations from Charlotte, Mr. Hudson) had a nice line: 7 IP, 2 R, 2H, 5 K, 2 BB.  And Sergio Santos continued to be perfect, throwing another inning of scoreless ball to keep his ERA at 0.00.  Maybe he should be the closer instead of Jenks.

This all was on the heels of the walk-off win on Friday night -- see the post below this one -- and gave the Sox a sweep of the Mariners.  The Sox are now only three games below .500, are 5.0 games back of the Twins, and have a Magic Number of 149.  It's on to Texas for a showdown with the Rangers.  Go Sox!