157

Back in first, baby!  The White Sox crept back into a tie for the Central Division lead with a 5-1 victory over the Royals in yesterday's sold-out (38,579) home opener.  Edwin Jackson continued to impress, tossing 8 innings of 4-hit, 1-run ball.  Most impressive was his strikeout-to-walk ratio: 13:1.  Since 1919 (as far back as Baseball-Reference.com's stats go), there have been only 345 games in which a pitcher has whiffed more than 12 batters while handing out fewer than 2 free passes -- on average, not even 4 times per season.  Looks like E.J.'s high-level performance last year wasn't just a flash in the pan.

But the most impressive thing so far this season has been the offense.  Yesterday's lineup (which did not include Adam Dunn, who was recovering from an appendectomy) featured 7 players hitting above .291.  The Good Guys have put up double-digit hit totals in 5 of their 6 games so far, which projects to 135 for the season, and are just shy of averaging 13 per game.  This seems highly unlikely to continue, given that last year, the team had only 67 games with 10 or more hits.  So enjoy these stats while you can:  The Sox lead the Major Leagues in runs, hits, RBI, batting average, and hit batsmen.  They lead the American League in all those categories (duh!) plus on base percentage.  Looks like the South Side Hitmen 2.0.

By the way, the Sox have done all this largely against the 2 teams that are tied with them for first place in the division -- the Indians and the Royals.  The 2 teams Sox fans fear the most -- the Twins and Tigers -- are 2 games back of the leaders in last place, which is just where we like them.  The Sox continue their home-opening series against Tampa Bay, which has yet to win this year, so let's keep it that way.  Go Sox!