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The St. Valentines Day Massacre happened on the North Side of Chicago on February 14, 1929.  Last night, a different kind of massacre took place on the South Side, as the White Sox annihilated the Mariners, 11-0.  With a score like that, it's hard to say what's better, the pitching or the hitting.

Let's start on the mound.  Gavin Floyd continued to impress, yielding no runs on five hits and no walks in his seven innings.  Matt Thornton struck out three M's in his one inning of relief, and even Tony Pena contributed a scoreless frame.  Since June 8, Floyd has the best ERA in the A.L. at 1.04 (8 earned runs in 69.1 innings).  Opponents are batting only .202 against him during that stretch (50 hits in 247 at bats).  And it was his ninth Quality Start (out of 10 total starts) during that period.

In the batter's box, the Sox built their 11 runs on 12 hits, including three home runs (Paul Konerko's 22nd, Alexei Ramirez's 10th, and Andruw Jones's 14th). Every starter except for Alec Rios and Carlos Quentin had at least one hit, and Ramirez again led the way with three.  Gordon Beckham and Dayan Viciedo each had a pair of doubles.   The remarkable thing is that with all those hits, the game still took only two hours and four minutes to play -- a time more suitable to a pitchers' duel.

So the question in my mind is: Do the Sox really need an Adam Dunn?  Just looking at the 21 games so far this month, they've scored 106 runs, which works out to more than five runs a game.  Ourrecord when we score four or more per game is 39-9 this year.  Now that the bats have awakened, I don't think we need another bat.  And don't forget left-handed Mark Teahen is about to come back, although some of us might like to.

There's also the question of whether the Sox really need another pitcher.  Over those same 21 games, the Sox staff has allowed only 66 runs, or just over three per game.  The Good Guys are 39-11 when holding the opposition to fewer than four runs in a game.  It's too early to tell what Daniel Hudson is going to be like, but are we willing to pay what it will take to get someone better than he is, and with his potential?

Sox remain a game ahead of Minnesota, as they go for the sweep of Seattle.  Go Sox!