Monday, September 13, 2010

26

It's all about the numbers at this point.  The White Sox and Twins each has 19 games left to play, three of which are head to head in the Cell starting tomorrow night.  Since the Sox trail the Twins by 6.0 games, even a sweep -- a tall order -- will leave the Good Guys three games back of Minnesota with only 16 left after that.  The Twinkies' Magic Number is 14, so even if they go 9-10, the Sox need to go 15-4 -- a very tall order --  for a tie.  John Danks faces off against Francisco Liriano in game one, and we're not looking past that.

The weekend did show resilience by the Sox.  In the two games they won against the Royals, the Pale Hose came from behind by scoring three runs in the eighth inning on Friday to pull out a 4-3 victory, and overcame a 6-0 first-inning deficit to win 12-6 on Sunday.  A.J. Pierzynski struck the big blow -- a two-run double -- in the first game, and Paul Konerko mashed two taters (giving him 36 on the year) and drove in five runs while Andruw Jones hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the finale.

The Sox are beat up physically.  Freddy Garcia's back continues to plague him and forced Lucas Harrell to make an emergency start on Sunday -- not a good one either, as he gave up those six runs in the first inning.  Bobby Jenks is still day to day, meaning that rookie Chris Sale has been serving as the closer.  Not exactly the recipe for going 15-4.

The good news is that it's September, and the Sox are still in contention -- if just barely.  We've had more to cheer about in 2010 than I expected.  And in the words of a famous Chicagoan, "It's not over till we say it's over.  Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"  Go Animal House!  Go Sox!

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