It was a very well played baseball game, a pitchers duel of sorts, as only 3 runs were scored between the two power-stacked offenses, with the defense on both sides of the field executing at a very high level. The scoring began in the third, after a leadoff double by Gordon Beckham and a Dewayne Wise bunt single moving Bacon to third, Kevin Youkilis stepped up with a job to do. Youk didn’t disappoint as he lifted a sac fly to deep right, plating Beckham and giving the Sox a 1-0 advantage early.

The Yankees would eventually answer in the 6th when the most overrated player in baseball: Derek Jeter, drilled a solo shot to left center, tying the ball game at one. That would be the offensive highlight of the night for New York, as their bats were silenced by an outstanding performance by young Chris Sale.

Sale went 7.2 innings only giving up 3 hits and surrendering only the one homerun to Jeter. He struck out a whopping 13 batters while only walking 1. Chris looked strong throughout this one as his fastball stayed in the mid 90′s all night. The key for Sale was and always has been his ability to get ahead of the hitter by starting each at bat off with a majority of strikes. That and that alone puts him in position to knock guys out with his phenomenal off speed stuff. Tonight he showcased his great change-up and buckled one of the leagues top offenses with his filthy slider.

Back to the offense, the tie was broken in the bottom of the 6th as Alex Rios answered the Bronx Bombers right back with a solo shot to left center off Hughes. I think Hawk said it best after that Rios homerun when he said, a sign of a resilient team is the ability to answer back after their opposition has put runs on the board in a close game (well maybe Hawk didn’t put it as eloquently as that, but you get the drift). The Rios solo job would cap off the offense for the night.

Brett Myers came in and relieved Sale with 2 outs in the 8th, getting Derek Jeter to ground out to second and ending the inning. Cue Addison Reed in the 9th, he came in and looked solid, strong-handing 3 of the 4 Yankees he faced, ending the game with a ground out to short and securing the first White Sox sweep of the Yankees at the Cell since its inaugural year.

This was a big bounce back series for the Sox after getting swept in Kansas City. The Sox kept 2 games between them and the Tigers as they have been just as hot as the Sox this month. Hopefully, we can keep it rolling with the Seattle Mariners coming to town this weekend. The Sox have an off day tomorrow, when you lay in bed tonight, pray for a Detroit loss tomorrow. See ya Friday.

I’m not usually one to take too much stock in attendance during the baseball season. Quite honestly, I’m so sick of hearing cub fans lean on it as their way to convince themselves their franchise ISN’T the biggest joke in sports because they can sell tickets to their museum, I don’t even like to talk about it. In terms of the play on the field, attendance seems irrelevant. But, Is it important for revenue? Of course it is. Does revenue put better players on the field? For anyone but the cubs, it usually does. Do better players give your team a better chance to succeed? Again, for most anyone but the cubs…..

But I’m a White Sox fan, I’m used to the stadium having a few empty seats throughout the course of a season, as long as the team is showing up every night and respecting the game, I’m happy. If the team is winning, its a very nice bonus. However, this season I’ve started to give attendance a little bit of viability. The White Sox are in first place and we’re in August. Although we’ve been seeing some above average attendance these past few weeks (exceeding 30K), I was a little disappointed at tonight’s game. When my cousin and all around baseball Guru, Garrett Guest (Scout for the Detroit Tigers, follow him on twitter @garth432b) suggested I get on here and blog at my fellow Sox fans about getting out to the park to support this team, I figured it was about that time to have my first attendance discussion with you all.

I went to the park straight from work and the atmosphere outside was pretty festive. There seemed to be a steady flow of fans entering the Cell and I was expecting a 35,000+ turn out. My reasoning for such an expectation can be summed up by the following thought process:

Its a Friday night

We’re in first place (in August)

The weather is beautiful

The A’s are in town, they’ve been hot and are contending for the wild card

That is the formula/thought process that has been drilled into my head growing up a White Sox fan. You see, White Sox fans are an interesting bunch to try and figure out. From my experience I would chronologically chart the flow of attendance by month like this:

April: We draw around 20K, between the bad weather and the usual uncertainty about the type of team we’ll be getting for that upcoming season, Sox fans keep their hard earned cash in their wallets (understandably so).

May: We draw a little more on the weekends and on certain special price nights as the college kids are usually home and the weather starts to improve. Depending on how the team is doing and what teams are in town, we might see a few upper 20,000′s game here and there.

June: We’re drawing between 23-26 K on a pretty consistent basis (depending on the quality of team we’re dealing with). Half price Monday’s pull in a 30ish thousand game maybe once or twice for the month (depending on the schedule). But mainly steady decent crowds.

July: The weather has fully heated up by now and on nice weekend days and promotional/ticket deal nights we’ll see a crowd over 30 K with a steady, daily crowd of 24-28 K (depending on the matchup and the teams spot in the standings)

August: If the team is in the race, divisional night games and weekend games can and will pull in the mid 30′s. Normal weekday and weeknight games will see about 28 K. If the team isn’t in it, we might see mid to low 20′s. But usually in a tight race with big match ups coming in, we’ll push the envelope from 34-37 K (as we’ve seen a few times this month already).

September: If we’re in the race, the crowds will push 30 K on weekends and most weeknights. The weekday games are always a tough draw (assuming there isn’t a clincher or promotion on the line). If we’re out of it, we’ll sit in the mid 20′s.

October: Assuming this means we’re into the post season, Sox fans will finally be convinced enough to spend their money, we’ll see sellouts.

Why does it play out like this each and every year? Because of the mindset and the demographic that make up Sox fans. We’re talking about blue collar, hard working people, who are more likely to save their money then spend it on tickets to a rainy day game in April with question marks surrounding the team. We work too hard for our money to spend it to see a bad team play. Even when the team is contending, we’ve seen our Sox fall apart late or outplayed down the stretch too many times to really put our money where our mouths are until we’re sure our team isn’t going to be a tease. Weeknights for 75% of the year are tough draws because a lot of people work all day and would rather save the money, go home and pop the game on the TV. Does that make us any less knowledgeable about the game or our team? No. Does it make us bad fans? No. I think it makes us smart to be quite honest.

As a White Sox fan, attendance has always been thrown in my face by ignorant cub fans. Trying to label a ball club or their fans by their attendance numbers is stupid. The cubs are the best example of how little a sell out crowd can positively impact the results on the field. I would rather have a stadium 75% full with actual baseball fans in the seats and a winning ball club on the field, than have a sell out with a bunch of social hour yuppies in the seats with a last place club on the field, any day.

Now, with that being said Sox fans, the time has come…. we can trust this team, they’re in the race and they’re going to be in the race. They have proved to be ticket worthy, so we need to get out and put some asses in the seats There’s about a month and a half left to play this year and we’re in first place. This club has passed the test and its time to unify at 35th and Shields and experience the pennant race first hand. I’m right there with all of you in terms of attendance, like I’ve said it doesn’t mean much to me until our players prove that they deserve our attendance and folks, this team has done just that. They’ve been finding ways to win, they play hard, they battle in every game and they’re fun to watch. No more excuses for empty seats. Time to fill the park.

Let me just finish by saying, when you’re watching a Sox game in that stadium and the seats are packed, there’s nothing like it. The electricity in the air combines with the attentiveness of each fan as each play becomes seemingly imperative. The pride you will feel as a White Sox fan in an atmosphere like that, is untouchable. Those are the games that draw future generations to the park simply through a spoken memory by an elder and those are the games that we as fans live for. Lets bring those games back to the South Side.

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.