The White Sox came home on Friday night to face off against another legitimate playoff team in the Angels. With Phillip Humber on the mound for the Sox and Zack Greinke trying to make a good impression on his new team, it would prove to be a wild one on the South Side.

The dramatics started right away in the first inning, after the Angels posted a run in the top half, the stage was set for the Pale Hose to try to answer back. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Paul Konerko would hit into a 5-2 fielders choice (ground ball to third, force out was taken at home). As the Angels catcher, Chris Iannetta, attempted to throw Paulie out at first, completing a double play, he threw the ball wide to Pujols at first, pulling him off the base and allowing Konerko to reach safely. Well, Angels manager Mike Scioscia felt that Konerko had been illegally running inside the baseline, forcing Iannetta to make an wild throw to first. The umpires didn’t agree and allowed the play to stand (as it is a judgement call at that point), which didn’t sit well with Scioscia, who followed the proper protocol and requested the game be played under protest. Basically, the league will look at the play and evaluate whether or not the umpires got the call right and (more importantly) whether or not that play directly changed the overall outcome of the game. Well it just so happened that the White Sox posted a run on an Alex Rios single, resulting in an Adam Dunn train wreck at home plate, trucking Iannetta who made a fantastic play and held onto the ball retiring Bigun at the plate (but not before Youk came around to score). Well, in true AJ fashion, Pierzynski followed that collision with a three run home run, shoving the Paul Konerko play down the throats of Angel fans everywhere (2005 game 2 of the ALCS anyone?) and giving the Sox the 4-1 advantage.

Phillip Humber did not have his good stuff tonight, allowing the Angels to get right back into the ball game, tying it at 4 by the 3rd inning. Humber went 5.2 innings allowing 6 earned runs on 10 hits and 4 walks. He left the game with a pretty bleak 2 run deficit. But, the Sox would strike back.

In the 6th, Alex Rios homered to bring the Sox within 1 run (6-5 Angels). Not to be outdone, Alejandro De Aza would lace a ground rule double to left, driving in Alexei Ramirez to tie the ball game in the 8th. That RBI double set up by some classic small ball, with Beckham bunting Ramirez to second, setting up the RBI opportunity for Alejandro. The score would remain tied until the 10th inning, with the bullpen really stepping up tonight. Between Jones, Myers, Crain and Thornton (in that order) the bullpen went 4.1 innings allowing no runs and pitching out of some tight jams. Seeing the bullpen shut down one of the best offenses in baseball is a very encouraging sign.

So cue the tenth inning. Adam Dunn leads the inning off with a check swing single (oops! thank you shift) and is taken down for pinch runner Jordan Danks. After a rough at bat for Paulie (capping off a bad night for el capitan) Danks steals second with Rios at the dish. The 32,060 fans at the cell tonight were just  hoping for a little base hit from the red hot Alex Rios….. well they got a little more than that as Rios would turn around a 1-2 fastball from David Carpenter, parking it in the left center field seats sending US Cellular field into a frenzy. A huge win for the White Sox, pushing them to a season high 11 games over the .500 mark.

A quick tip of the cap to the offensive heros of this game and of this season so far:

Paul Konerko, bad night tonight, great year this year.

Adam Dunn, big power year, nice walk total

Alejandro De Aza, a guy who is not getting enough credit. Going 3 for 5 and driving in a big run in the 8th. Alejandro has really been an unsung hero this season. When this guy gets on base, we score runs, its that simple. Not to mention the guy has 42 RBI’s hitting leadoff couple that with a very telling 67 runs scored and its easy to see that he might be the biggest key to our offensive success.

AJ Pierzynski, setting a new career season high home run total tonight, belting his 19th homer on the year while going 1 for 3 with a run score, a walk and 3 RBI’s, this guy is having the best offensive year of any catcher in the league.

And of course, Alex Rios. Going 3 for 5 tonight with 4 RBI’s, 3 runs scored (2 HRs), this man is having himself a season. Finally showing Chicago what he’s capable of, hes been a huge piece for this offense and continues to put the Sox on his back and help them win big games.

Hopefully the Sox can come out and get the win tomorrow. More importantly, hopefully Gavin Floyd doesn’t drive us up the wall tomorrow night, who knows, maybe someone introduced him to the concept of getting ahead of hitters since his last start. Thats going to be a 6:05 start over on WGN tomorrow night, lets win this huge series.

The White Sox have been unbelievably good on the road this season. However, at the same time, they have been unbelievably mediocre at home. But none the less, the Sox went into St. Louis on Tuesday with the best road record in major league baseball at 17-9. With a red hot Quintana on the mound and a solid offensive performance, the Sox would improve that major league best road record to 18-9.

The Sox jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the second on an Orlando Hudson triple to right center field with two on and two out. The offense would quiet down for a few innings, coming back to life in the 8th when Alejandro De Aza doubled to start the inning. Gordon Beckham would follow him with an RBI single giving the Sox the 3-1 advantage. The Swamp Donkey, Adam Dunn, made his presence known by launching a solo bomb into the right field bleachers. Capping off the four run 8th would be AJ Pierzynski knocking in Alex Rios with a 2 run laser into the right field stands.

Jose Quintana was effective once again. Going 5 1/3rd innings allowing just one run on 10 hits. He has been a pleasant surprise for this White Sox team and I think his success opens up a trade possibility for Gavin Floyd. But thats another topic for another time. The Sox also used Jones, Thornton, Crain, and Reed who combined for 3 2/3rd innings of work out of the pen, allowing no runs on 1 hit.

I’m not sure what it is with this team and playing so well on the road, but if they can start to figure it out at home, this will be one tough club to beat. I think there are a few trade options on the table right now for Kenny to consider in order to make this team a little stronger, places that stand out as needing some help are obviously 3rd base (although Hudson has done well for us in terms of who he was replacing) and the bullpen, possibly 1 spot in the rotation.

Oh hey, Cleveland lost too… back up to 1.5 game lead baby! We got Jake “The Bulldog” Peavy on the mound tomorrow, lets go out and take the series early.

White Sox (20-21): 7
Cubs (15-25): 4

These two men, are very very strong. (Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE)

Dayan Viciedo hit well enough to become a suspect in the Paul Konerko beaning. “Cui bono?” you must ask. Dayan was set to be relegated to the bench this series, but stepped in after Paulie was removed following a splitter to the eye in Friday afternoon’s game. Tank made the most of the starting bid Saturday, knocking in the Sox first 3 runs. One in the first, driving De Aza home with a hard single to center and two more in the 4th floating a homerun into the basket in left center. Wrigley’s favorite, A.J. Pierzynski would follow with a homerun of his own. They call that “back to back” in the baseball biz.

Dempster lasted nearly as long as Danks, but a bit more roughly. He once again failed to earn the win, but this time it was his own doing. 4 runs on 7 hits with 3 walks (all to Adam Dunn) for the guy with the wiggly glove, who put in 6 innings of work.

Then came an interesting 8th inning for the Cubs bullpen. James Russell opted to pitch to Adam Dunn for once, and Adam Dunn decided that he’d like to hit another homerun off of a left hander, launching a shot into the right field seats. An inexplicable intentional walk of Rios to get to Alexei followed an AJ double, and Alexei would single Pierzynski home as a thank you. Next up Eduardo Escobar hit a groundball to third that Joe Mather couldn’t field cleanly. James Russell would hand the ball over to Blake Parker so that he could face Brent Lillibridge with bases loaded. Lillibridge would strike out, then Parker was removed from the game due to injury after going 3-0 to De Aza. His replacement, Michael Bowden would throw a first pitch ball to walk in a run. A Gordo K would end the inning.

In the bullpen, Nate Jones and Hector Santiago would do their jobs, and Zach Stewart would have a rough go of it in the 9th, giving up a 2 run HR to Alfonso Soriano and a 2 run HR to Joe Mather. Though, if you’re going to give up them, give them up with a cushion.

Plus: That’s a big fat Adam Dunn game, right there. 1 for 1 with a HR and 4 walks. Adam-12 in the house!

Minus: De Aza getting caught stealing again irked me a bit, but really the Soriano blast off of Zach Stewart was really annoying and the Joe Mather dinger just plain uncomfortable.

Tipping Point:
Dayan Viciedo’s HR that put the Sox up 3-0 was worth a 19.1% shift in win expectancy. It was all Sox from there on out.

Source: FanGraphs