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Ozzie Guillen getting tossed out of a game is not really news -- it's happened 22 times -- but Mark Buehrle joining him among the ranks of the ejected qualifies as a "Man Bites Dog" headline.  Yesterday afternoon, umpire Joe West called two balks on Buehrle.  The second-inning call and West's subsequent comments to Buehrle drew Ozzie's ire and resulted in his getting to take the rest of the day off.  The same call in the next inning caused Buehrle to throw his glove to the ground in frustration and earned him an early shower.  I have to admit that what constitutes a balk has always been somewhat of a mystery to me, but Steve Stone and Ed Farmer, former pitchers and Sox announcers on TV and radio, respectively, both insisted that Buehrle's move to first was a legitimate pickoff attempt rather than the proscribed balk.  Hawk Harrelson agreed and declared that West, who has thrown Ozzie out of three games in the last four years, needs to be suspended.

While Ozzie's loss is not really that big a deal, losing your starting pitcher in the third inning when he's pitching a shutout could be devastating.  Fortunately, the Sox came right back in the fourth inning and jumped on the Indians.  It took Juan Pierre a long time to get his first double of the season, but they seem to be coming with some regularity now, including one to open the inning.  Two batters later, Alex Rios coaxed a walk.  Paul Konerko drove in Pierre with a single, and after Mark Kotsay drew an intentional walk, Mark Teahen singled home two runs.  In the sixth inning, Mark Kotsay gave the Sox a couple of insurance runs with a two-run homer.

And it's a good thing they had that insurance because Bobby Jenks had a hard time protecting a 5-1 lead in the ninth.  Jenks gave up a double, a walk, a single, another walk, and another single to consecutive batters, which made the final score 5-4.  It looks like Jenks pitching the last inning in a 5-4 win would entitle him to a save, but since he came in with a four-run lead and no one on base, he was not eligible for the save.  The fact that he put himself into what would otherwise qualify as a save situation doesn't matter. Paradoxically, if he'd lost the lead and the Sox had come back to win the game in the bottom half of the inning, he'd have gotten the win.  Oh, well, it doesn't matter as long as the Sox got the win.

By edging Cleveland in the rubber game of the series, the Sox picked up ground on everyone in the division except the Royals, who also won yesterday.  Speaking of the Royals, they had seven guys in their lineup Wednesday who are hitting better than Konerko's .262.  The Sox had one -- Rios at .308.  The Twins had six, and the Tigers and Indians had five each.  Is it any wonder the Sox are struggling?  At least they moved back to 6.0 games behind Minnesota, which lost its suspended game with the Yankees and dropped the regularly scheduled game as well.  Now the Good Guys travel to Tampa to face the Rays, who have the best record in baseball.  Let's hope the recent streak of winning consecutive series continues.  Go Sox!