Five and Dive

Cue Javier. And now, on with the opera. Let joy be unconfined. Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and necking in the parlor. Javier Vazquez rarely misses his cue, and sure enough, last night after five strong innings, Vazquez handed the lead back to the Royals just moment after the White Sox tied the game. It's hard to blame Ozzie for leaving Vazquez out there; it was only a 2-2 game, but he does this EVERY TIME. Anyway, there's enough blame to go around. Jermaine Dye dropped a fly ball that cost the team a run. But, regardless of whether the team gave up 3 runs or 4, you have to get more than 2 runs off of Runelvys Hernandez. Going into last night's game, he had more walks allowed than strikeouts, and he had given up 17 homeruns in fewer than 60 innings.

Oh well, it's over now. But tonight's game is huge. The Sox have to quickly show that they're going to reestablish their momentum and take this series from the lowly Royals. One reassuring thing going forward: after Monday's blow-out win and Tuesday's loss, Mike MacDougal, Bobby Jenks, and Matt Thornton -- the surprise trio who have made the Sox pen one of the team's strengths -- have had two days to recharge for the remainder of this brutal 24 game stretch. Speaking of which, I said before this stretch that if the team went 16-8 during that period they would be in perfect position to grab the wildcard. At the half way mark the Sox are 8-4, right on pace, and gradually asserting control in the AL wildcard race.