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Before last night's game, if Gavin Floyd has sued the White Sox for lack of support, no one would have blamed him.  Going into Tuesday's tilt with the Royals, Floyd had the second lowest level of run support in the league at 2.80.  The Sox had scored no runs four times, one run four times, and two runs once when Floyd has pitched this season, and they've put up a total of five runs in his last six starts.  So having four runs to work with last night was a veritable excess of riches for the right-hander.  And he didn't disappoint, giving up only three runs, two of them earned, in 6.2 innings.  Matt Thornton finished the seventh inning and got two outs in the eighth without allowing a run, and J.J. Putz shut down the Royals the rest of the way to earn his second save and preserve Floyd's first win since win since May 22 and his first win ever in KC.  Putz was the closer because Bobby Jenks is still out with a family emergency, and J.J. kept two streaks intact.  He made his 17th appearance in a row without giving up a run, and he maintained his ERA in road games this year at 0.00.  Not too shabby a replacement for Big Bobby.

The bats were smoking hot, as the Sox garnered a dozen hits, with every starter not named Alex Rios getting at least one.  Juan Pierre, Mark Kotsay, Dayan Viciedo, and Gordon Beckham each had two.  A.J. Pierzynski, Becks, Pierre, and Alexei Ramirez each had an RBI for the Good Guys, while former Sox Scottie Pods (2) and Wilson Betemit (1) drove in all of KC's runs.  Viciedo also had the first steal of his career.

With a win in the finale, the Sox will take their seventh consecutive series and pick up ground on either Minnesota or Detroit, who play each other again today.  The Twins won last night's game to move back into first, so the Sox trail them by 1.5 games and the Tigers by 1.0.  Right now, the A.L. Central is the tightest race in baseball.  Time for the Sox to break this thing open and leave those other two teams behind.  Go Sox!