98

For everyone who was pooh-poohing the White Sox's recent resurgence because it came at the expense of bad teams like the Cubs, Pirates, and Nationals (Stephen Strasburg, excepted), how do you like 'em now?  The Good Guys proved they could do it against a good team -- the Atlanta Braves, who lead the N.L. East and had a five-game winning streak of their own going into last night's contest.

The White Hot Sox came back from an early three-run deficit to top the Braves 9-6, pounding out a sweet 16 hits in the process.  The win, the team's seventh in a row and 11th in their last 12 games, went to John Danks, who contributed a quality start.  But this game was all about the bats.  Not only did the Sox match their season high for safeties, but they finally ended the homerless skein that was plaguing them.  Carlos Quentin, who has shown real signs of coming back to life after being declared clinically dead at the plate, poked a three-run shot to end the four-bagger drought.

One of the base hits deserves special mention: Alex Rios hit a hard smash to Braves third baseman Brooks Conrad.  The ball wound up inside of Conrad's jersey for what Steve Stone called "an inside-the-shirt single."  I've never seen that one before, but apparently Hawk Harrelson has since he said he hasn't seen that happen in a long time.  I take it as a sign that the baseball "gods" are back to being on our side.

With the win and Minnesota's loss, the Sox have climbed to within 4.5 games of first place in the Central Division.  At 35-34, they're over .500 for the first time since they won on Opening Day.  And the Good Guys have five more games against the National League -- two with the Braves and three with the Cubs -- which, so far, has proven to be good for what ails them.  Enjoy this while you can, because they're likely to lose one or two of the 94 games remaining on the schedule.  Hopefully the fun will continue a little longer.  Go Sox!