128

Remember the old Doublemint commercials – Double your pleasure, double your fun? Well, the White Sox did exactly that last night against the Surprising Indians. They not only doubled the Indians’ score they doubled it twice, winning 8-2, behind two sets of two players who drove in two runs and the pitching of Gavin Floyd.

In the first inning, Paul Konerko slammed a fastball off the wall in left field for a double that scored two runners – Juan Pierre, who had doubled himself, and Alexei Ramirez. In the second, Ramirez doubled down the left field line to score two more – Dallas McPherson and Omar Vizquel. Later in the second inning, Adam Dunn lined a ball up the middle that almost decapitated Cleveland pitcher Fausto Carmona and wound up plating an additional two runners – Pierre and Ramirez. And in the fifth, with Paulie on base, Carlos Quentin powered a home run just to the right of the Nellie Fox graphic to complete the two-run scoring spree. Add to that two-squared players (Pierre, Ramirez, Dunn, and Q) who had two hits, two players (Pierre and Ramirez) who scored two runs, a double play in the field by the Sox, and two twin killings that the Good Guys “hit” into at bat. (I put “hit” in quotes because one of them was a strikeout by Konerko and a caught stealing by Dunn. The Big Donkey trying to swipe a base happens a lot more often than I would have guessed. He’s stolen 59 and been caught 22 two times in his career.)

Enough with the Doublemint theme – it’s a Wrigley’s product after all. Let’s move on to Floyd the Barber, who allowed only one run and five hits in his 7.0 innings. He threw 67 strikes out of his 103 pitches, while striking out three and walking only one. Floyd’s opposite number was Carmona, who does pretty well when he isn’t facing the Sox – 2.46 ERA against the rest of the league. However, on Opening Day, he gave up 10 runs to the South Siders, and last night, he was charged with all eight runs. I’m sure the Sox wouldn’t mind facing him again – but that will have to wait until at least July 22, which is the next time they face the Tribe.

The sweep means the Sox have won four of their last five series, with the other being a split with Texas. Cleveland’s lead over us is down to 8.0 games and the Magic Number has been reduced to 128. Now, it’s time to feast on some National League teams, which is what started the hot streak for the team last year. We still owe the Dodgers – the next opponent – for 1959, so Go Sox!