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I had a round-number birthday on Friday and celebrated by going to the Nationals-Reds game.  It was supposed to be phenom Stephen Strasburg's first start in the majors.  Or at least that's what the Nationals allowed their fans to believe until the game was almost sold out.  Once that happened, they announced that Strasburg would be starting on June 8 against the Pirates, which started a stampede for tickets for that game.  (Fortunately, my friend Bob Shapiro had tickets for both games and generously offered to have me accompany him Tuesday as well).  Friday's game was fun despite the absence of Strasburg, except for my scoreboard-watching of the White Sox-Indians game.  Sheesh, another loss to the team in last place in the division and with the second-worst record in the American League.  It looks like Strasburg will face the Sox on June 18 at Nats Park, and we all know how the Sox do against pitchers they haven't seen before.

One other interesting Sox-related thing occurred.  Joe West, the umpire who called two balks on Mark Buehrle and ejected him and Ozzie Guillen in Buehrle's last start, called a balk on Nats pitcher Livan Hernandez.  Livo didn't throw his glove to the ground in disgust -- though in fairness to Buehrle, it was only one balk call, not two -- and manager Jim Riggleman didn't go out to argue the call, or "protect" his player as Ozzie portrays it.  A couple of innings later, there was a close play at third and the third-base ump, Paul Schreiber, called the Nats' Ian Desmond safe.  West, the crew chief, overruled the call, and Desmond wound up getting thrown out of the game.  The official report says Schreiber tossed him, but Bob and I thought we saw West give him the heave-ho.  Either way, it was somewhat comforting to know that West doesn't limit his antics to picking on the Sox.  Just think about it.  How many umpires' names do you even know?  My point exactly.  Only showboats like Joe West get their names known -- something most umpires studiously avoid.

Speaking of Buehrle, he stunk again yesterday.  He lasted only 3.0 innings, even though it took him 95 pitches to complete those three innings.  Buehrle gave up eight hits and three walks, which led to six runs.  Fortunately, the Sox overcame 3-0 and 6-2 deficits to beat the Indians 8-7.  The bullpen permitted only one run the rest of the way, and J.J. Putz got the win, with Bobby Jenks picking up his ninth save.  Paul Konerko poked his 17th homer, and Carlos Quentin had a two-run hit that provided the winning runs.  

All of this came on the heels of Friday's and Saturday's losses to a truly bad team.  So what does that make the Sox?  I'm afraid the answer might be that they're a bad team too.  They trail the Twins by 8.5 games, but the bigger problem is that they've not given us any reason to believe they can mount a challenge.  There are over 100 games to go, but that may be both the good news and the bad news.  Go Sox!