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The White Sox evened their record in extra-innings games yesterday when Alexei Ramirez hit the first walkoff home run of his career to give the Sox a 6-5 win over visiting Oakland.  The Good Guys had dropped their only other extended affair the night before -- I apologize to those of you trying to forget Monday's debacle for bringing that up -- against these same A's.  The Missile's blast was his second of the game; his first staked Edwin Jackson to a 4-1 lead in the second inning that Jackson couldn't hold.

Actually, both teams had a hard time staying ahead as the lead changed hands five times during the game.  The only one that matters of course is the last time.  Besides Ramirez, we have Sergio Santos and Chris Sale to thank for that.  Each of them threw 2.0 innings of shutout ball.  Santos struck out three and allowed no hits or walks.  Sale, who got the win, struck out two, while allowing a hit and a walk.  (Side note about Santos:  I just read an article that says because of his long stride and reach Santos releases the ball 6'10'' in front of the rubber, which is second only to Dave Robertson's 7'0".  That shortens the flight time of his pitches so that his fastball's average speed of 96 MPH is effectively increased to 98 MPH.)

Anyway, at 1-1 in extra-inning games, the Sox are playing like they did last year, when they finished 9-9 when the game went past regulation.  They won all nine games where they scored, and lost all nine games where they allowed the other team to do so.  That's the way it usually works, but every once in a while both teams could score an equal number of runs in an inning.  Actually, that's happened only 3 times in the last five years for the Sox.  Remember, the game against the Red Sox on July 9, 2006, where the Sox won 6-5 in 19 innings on Tad Iguchi's walkoff single?  I do.  I was there with son Jeff and Update subscribers and cousins Howard and Brad Silverman and Judy and Tom Deutsche, and sat briefly with Update subscribers Mike Sehr and Lisa Pildes.  Well, both teams scored two runs in the 11th inning that day.  For a complete report, click here.

Yesterday's win puts the Sox back in second, 1.0 behind the Indians -- who finally lost to someone other than the Sox.  We're still 2.5 ahead of the Twins and 3.0 in front of the Tigers.  Go Sox!