What was supposed to be a pitchers duel turned into a hit parade early. With Chris Sale facing off against Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers in Arlington on Friday night, most baseball fans expected to see a few hits scattered around with a run or two being more than enough to claim a victory. But with a total of 14 runs scored in the game and 5 runs scored in the first inning, it was quite the opposite between the AL West and AL Central leaders.

The White Sox plated one run in the first inning on an Alex Rios sacrifice fly. Not to be outdone, the Rangers answered back in the bottom half of the first with 4 runs. A Josh Hamilton sac fly tied it at one and a Nelson Cruz 3 run homer gave the Rangers an early 4-1 lead. I’ll be honest, with Darvish on the mound and a 3 run deficit in the first inning, things didn’t look that great for our Sox.

The Pale Hosers would bounce right back in the second, putting up two runs on a Kevin Youkilis bomb, only to chalk up two more runs in the fourth on a Alejandro De Aza single with runners on second and third. The Sox would add another run in the seventh on an Alex Rios fielders choice, scoring Adam Dunn from third and giving our White Sox the 6-4 advantage.

Things would get a little interesting in the seventh inning as the Rangers staged a hefty threat. But with bases loaded and the ever dangerous Josh Hamilton at the plate, Matt Thornton would induce a ground ball resulting in a fielders choice and would retire Michael Young on a fly out to right field, minimizing the damage to only one run and preserving a one run lead going into the eighth.

Fast forward to the top of the ninth. With Dunn on first and your local White Sox insurance agent, Alex Rios at the plate the Sox would throw up a few runs to cushion the lead. Starting with a Rios double plating Dunn (7-5 S0x) and ending with an Alexei Ramirez two run homer giving the Sox the 9-5 lead heading to the bottom half of the inning.

Enter Addison Reed and the rest is history as the Sox would come out of this one winners with the final score of 9-5.

Sale had a tough start and we saw a few tough innings, but all in all the Sox showed they are a tough team, fighting back from an early deficit in order to overcome and hold off a very solid Rangers ball club in their home park. I still think the bullpen needs a little help and with the trade deadline approaching and the market for pitchers slowly diminishing to a pile of nothing, the Sox might need to make the best with what they have (which honestly could be a lot worse, in terms of their pitching situation). The offense is going to be ok and the rotation is not bad (should be interesting to see what happens with John Danks). That bullpen just scares me.

Oh and by the way, the Tigers lost, so we are now 1.5 games up. Lets get the next one tomorrow, boys.

As goofy lookin as this picture is, Cody Ross killed us tonight in Boston

The Red Sox run scoring attack was mounted by both of the men I previously mentioned. Ross was 3 for 5 with two homers and 6 RBI, while Gonzalez was 3 for 4 with a homer and two singles with 4 RBI.

The White Sox lone run was provided in the first courtesy of a Paul Konerko single, scoring Alejandro De Aza…. and that was it.

The line on newbie Hernandez was 4 innings pitched, 8 earned runs on 12 hits and 3 homers…. not the best first impression for Sox fans… Santiago also surrendered 2 runs, but by that time the game was already over.

Not much to say after this one, except hopefully our pitching staff can get healthy as soon as possible. They need some more veterans who have proven themselves. Those veterans are currently on the DL or just coming back from the DL. If we want this division, we need those guys to get healthy quick (that also applies to the bullpen guys who have been going down and moving around).

Hopefully we can come out and split the series tomorrow.

The Palehose jumped on the board early, plating two in the first inning on the strength of a 

July 16, 2012; Boston, MA, USA; Chicago White Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis (20) heads to third base during the first inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-US PRESSWIRE

walk followed by a 3 man hit parade courtesy of Dunn, Konerko, and Rios. The lead was short lived however as Humber surrendered RBI’s to  Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez in the bottom half of the first evening the score at 2. The scoring continued right into the second as Alejandro De Aza would drive in Alexei Ramirez from second to give the Sox the 3-2 advantage early.

The offenses cooled down for a couple innings until the 4th, when a Tank double and a Bacon walk (followed by a grounder moving both men over) brought Kevin Youkilis to the plate with first base open and 2 outs. Lester would fall behind to Youk 3-0, setting up what looked like a good old fashion pitch around. But Bobby Valentine must have had other ideas as Lester followed his first 3 pitches with fastball strikes, giving the Greek god of walks a full count in a key situation. Well, Lester’s pay-off pitch was a hit- me-fastball right down the middle that ended up in the second row on top of the green monster. Hey Bobby, maybe its about time to finally start paying some respect to the Youka… I’m not sure how they strategize in Japan, but here in the Majors, we give guys respect who deserve it, in key situations.

Side note: Not only did Valentine single handedly run the beloved Kevin Youkilis out of town, but now hes getting torched by him in his own ballpark (and I love it, by the way). Youk is 4-8 with a homer, 2 doubles, 3 runs scored, 2 RBI and a walk in his first two games back at Fenway. Do us all  favor Bobby V, get out of baseball, you’re a disgrace to this game.

Ok so, back to Tuesday night, Youk gives the Sox the 6-2 advantage. De Aza would drive in Alexei once again on a soft single in the 6th, giving the White Sox a 7-2 lead. Humber would depart after 6 innings pitched, giving up 2 earned runs on 6 hits while striking out 3, not too bad for his first start off the DL, not too bad at all. Brian Omogrosso relieved Humber in the 7th sitting the side down in order only to give way to Matt Thornton in the 8th. Thornton looked sharp early, surrendering a cheap infield hit to Crawford to lead it off, but getting the next two hitters. But with 2 outs and a man on third Thornton would give up a single to Will Middlebrooks, scoring Crawford, followed by a 2 run bomb to Kelly Shoppach cutting the White Sox lead to 2. Thornton finally got out of the 8th, making way for Addison Reed in the 9th. Addison came in and nailed things down, 1-2-3 to give the White Sox a big victory in bean town.

The Tigers and Indians both lost, which means the White Sox will pick up a game on both improving to 10 games over .500 and padding their slight AL Central lead to 3.5 over Detroit.

First pitch tomorrow is at 6:10 against the Red Sox and that will be over on Comcast Sports Net.