White Sox Survive Tough Homestand

The White Sox came back from a 10-day road trip to Detroit, Tampa Bay and Baltimore, coming back 5-4.

A great homecoming awaited the White Sox, as two surprising division leaders were at the steps of U.S. Cellular Field ready to play some ball. This seemed to be the biggest challenge of the season for the Sox as they have handled the Jays and Mariners well in recent years.

Toronto came into the Cell wasting no time, by taking advantage of Gavin Floyd, slamming him for six runs, five earned and led to Floyd's shortest outing of the year, leaving during the fifth inning. Brian Tallet held the White Sox to four hits in just over five innings, with the bullpen only surrendering a total of two more hits, for a 14-0 walloping of the Sox.

Sox bats woke up in the second of three games, thanks most by a grand slam by Alexei Ramirez. It was a great night for Ramirez, who had been struggling before this game, driving in five runs which led to a 10-2 win over the Jays.

The Sunday game proved to be more interesting as it was a pitchers duel between Roy Halladay and Jose Contreras. Interesting fact was that U.S. Cellular Field was the only park in the AL that Halladay did not have a win.

Each starter gave up three runs and exited to leave it up to their bullpens. Toronto, who has what I believe is the best bullpen in the AL, even without their closer B.J. Ryan, held the White Sox batters in check. For the Sox it was a different story, Scott Linebrink got into trouble and allowed the winning run to cross the plate in the 8th inning.

Toronto impressed me, especially their pitching. Yes they have Roy Halladay as their ace, but they have a lot of unknowns in the bullpen who are getting the job done and I see the Jays, barring injury, being in the AL East race all year.

Then Griffey, Jr. came back to the Cell, this time wearing his old Mariners uniform. The Monday match-up was postponed to a Tuesday double-header. The first game of the twin bill featured a nice pitching duel between Bartolo Colon and Chris Jakubauskas. Jakubauskas pitched a complete game, first of his career, surrendering just two runs. Colon was just a little better as he only gave up one run in seven innings with six strikeouts.

The second game featured another White Sox wallop. John Danks, who had been a hot streak, went cold. He surrendered five runs in his outing, lasting only four innings. The Sox could not get anything going on offense, as Felix Hernandez pitched another gem.

Today's game brought the Sox to 11-10 and wrapped up their six game homestand. Today featured changes to the lineup, as Jim Thome is listed as day-to-day and the big bopper was out of the lineup for the White Sox. This game featured a good pitching outing by Erik Bedard and Gavin Floyd. The starters both gave up only three runs a piece before handing it over to the bullpens. The Sox bullpen was lights out, but was not the case for the M's. Shawn Kelley came in and gave up back-to-back home runs to Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye, which proved fatal for Seattle.

Overall, the homestand ended 3-3 against two unlikely division leaders. Going into the season I would not think that the Mariners or the Blue Jays would even be close to the lead in the West or East, respectively. Both have shown they have very good pitching, starting and in the bullpen. Now it is off for a short trip to Texas for three and Kansas City for two.

More to come about injury updates of Chris Getz, Thome and DeWayne Wise.