That bad opening wasn’t a fluke–Floyd’s command was shaky and dumping his curveball out of the zone wasn’t doing much for his efficiency. He already had 47 pitches in the third inning when Tyler Flowers felt compelled to trot out to the mound. Flowers was soon followed by Herm Schneider and Robin Ventura, who eventually led Floyd off the field with nothing beyond Gavin’s normally sour expression as explanation. He would later be diagnosed with a flexor strain in his throwing elbow, the same injury that put him on the disabled list last year.

Before Hector Santiago could come in and deliver hot-and-cold relief work that ushered the White Sox right out of the game, the larger crisis of Matt Moore completely eviscerating the lineup had emerged. After looking all over the place in a leadoff walk in Alejandro De Aza, Moore struck out six in a row.  It would be the third inning before Tyler Flowers–of all people–was the first White Sox hitter to put the ball in play. It would be the fourth inning before Adam Dunn–really, of all the people–became the first White Sox hitter to get an actual hit (an opposite field solo home run).

Paul Konerko nearly went back-to-back with Dunn, and the three seconds of excited yelps that his fly ball to the left field warning track garnered was more excitement than a lineup missing platoon specialists like Jeff Keppinger and Dayan Viciedo could conjure off Matt Moore.

Kyle Farnsworth brought intrigue to the eighth inninh. He used two walks and an infield Paul Konerko single (yes, a misplay was involved) to load the bases and let back-to-back up-the-middle bullets off the bats of Alexei Ramirez and Conor Gillaspie to keep the carousel going. A bases loaded walk to Jordan Danks–who was fantastic at working counts–brought the tying run to the plate, but De Aza’s looped line drive down the right field line dropped just foul and preceded another awful chase on breaking stuff down-and-in to end the inning and the last meaningful threat, since the leaky back-end of the Sox pen put things back out of reach with two runs in the ninth

Alex Rios’ rough night (1-5, 3K) of pulling off the ball hampered the offense all on multiple occasions. He crippled a sixth-inning mini-rally when De Aza and Tyler Greene blooped back-to-back singles with a strikeout and popped up on the first pitch in the middle of the eighth.

Meanwhile, Santiago was roused for extended emergency relief work and pitched like someone who is turned to in an emergency. After warming up like he had been woken up by explosions outside his house, he immediately gave up a double to Evan Longoria and an RBI single to James Loney, who upped his series hit total to seven on the night. Tight screwballs bought Santiago four strikeouts over 3.2 innings, but flat screwballs bought him ten hits and four earned runs over that same time period. It’s to be expected given the circumstances of his appearance.

With nothing doing on the offense, Ventura took his foot off the gas and let Santiago wear it for 86 pitches, before turning to struggling LOOGY Donnie Veal, who ate 1.2 innings in plodding fashion, and Matt Lindstrom, who stumbled in the absence of a meaningful opportunity. In all, the Sox bullpen allowed eight runs (seven earned) on 17 hits in 6.1 innings.

Team Record: 10-13

Box Score

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

Two out of three wins is always necessary, but when things are going good folks get greedy, and I’d really like to see the win streak continue. The regular lineup will attempt to compliment Humber to that end:

1. De Aza – CF
2. Gordo – 2B
3. Big Donkey – DH
4. Paulie – 1B
5. Rios – RF
6. AJ – C
7. Dayan – LF
8. Alexei – SS
9. Hudson – 3B

Just a note for those that wondered, Adam Dunn’s blast yesterday off of Matt Moore travelled 445 feet. The second longest this season for the Big Donkey, trailing his shot on opening day by 4 feet.

A change of venue can sometimes be the marker that pulls responsibility for shifts in trends or momentum. The Sox have a lot of momentum right now coming off of a 5 game stretch in which the team put up 52 runs. Gordon Beckham and Alex Rios are both looking like the players we’ve been waiting on, Adam Dunn is keeping the Adam-12 thing going and helping us all to push 2011 further back in our minds. And then there is Paul Konerko. Nobody has any real inkling on how to get Paul Konerko out right now. His .399 average going into Monday’s action is the highest for an American League player on this date since Roberto Alomar carried a .401 in 1996. The rational fan in me knows that Konerko will begin coming to earth any moment know. But the White Sox fan in me says, Paul Konerko is absolutely ridiculously and unprecedentedly awesome and will keeping pounding opposing pitchers until there is no longer a need for it. So, until the end of October.

Today, as we honor those who gave their lives for our country, Chris Sale and Matt Moore will do battle to try and finish the day with their respective teams atop their division. Frank Thomas turned 44 yesterday. If you combine Chris Sale and Matt Moore’s ages, it comes to 45. That’s not a lot of experience on the mound, both have plenty to prove. Moore has struggled a bit this season and is looking to right the ship while Sale has excelled but some confusion as to his role on the staff has him working hard to prove that he’s in the right spot.

Today’s Lineup:

1. De Aza – CF
2. Gordo – 2B
3. Big Donkey – 1B
4. Paulie – DH
5. Rios – RF
6. AJ – C
7. Viciedo – LF
8. Alexei – SS
9. Hudson – 3B

Offense slumps, and a Sox hitting slump could come at any moment. It’s important that starting pitching get back to tossing as effectively as they did early on in the season. These rough outings won’t be covered by 12+ run explosions every game.