137

Before Wednesday, the White Sox were 8-3 in games in which the opponent scored three or fewer runs.  Unfortunately, they were 1-15 in games in which they themselves were held to no more than three runs.  Yesterday, the latter tendency trumped the former as the Sox fell to the Twins 3-2.  John Danks had allowed two earned runs or fewer in all six of his starts for the White Sox in 2010, but yesterday "ballooned" to three runs given up in seven innings and took the loss, making his record match the score.  Sergio Santos threw one inning of scoreless relief but did give up two hits.

Juan Pierre continued his hot hitting, stroking two more singles to raise his average to .252.  Pierre added two more stolen bases to increase his total to 17.  A.J. Pierzynski batted second again yesterday, but contributed nothing, going 0 for 4.  Alex Rios's 12-game hitting streak (20 for 49 for a .408 average) came to an end, but Rios reached over the center field fence to rob Michael Cuddyer of a home run, and added his 10th stolen base of the season.  Paul Konerko went 2 for 4 while collecting his 28th RBI.  Carlos Quentin continued to flail, going 0 for 4 (with another strikeout) to shrink his batting average to .180.  Mark Teahen also had an o-fer.  Gordon Beckham and Alexei Ramirez both had base knocks.  That's a total of six hits, none of them for extra bases -- the first time in 19 games that the Sox had failed to notch more than a single.

One of the pitchers who handcuffed the Sox was Jon Rauch, former Pale Hose hurler.  The majors' tallest player now has nine saves on the year and is the reason that former closer Joe Nathan's season-ending injury hasn't hurt the Twins as much as Sox fans had hoped.

The Sox again trail Minnesota by 8.0 games, but now find themselves in fourth place in the division.  After an off day, they play the Royals, the fifth-place team, in Kansas City.  Go Sox!  Beat the Royals!