Finally!

(July 17)

Short Take:  Sweep & over .500!

Opening Day was a long time ago.  It's also the last time the Sox were one game over .500.  3-1/2 months after this season began, our Chicago White Sox are back to where they were the evening of April 2.  What a long strange trip is has been.  It hurts to contemplate the lost championship hopes that were drowned during that extended period in the tank.  Bitterness about our plight for sure, Sox Fans.  Winning our ultimate victory will be all the sweeter!

The Sox returned to respectability winning two of three over the Flubs and now sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers.  In the matinee series finale, the Sox used the long ball to beat the Brew Crew into submission.  Four Pale Hose dingers account for five Sox runs, 8-4 victors.

It's official:  Kip Wells is no longer considered "an overrated phenom" by anyone in the Chicago media.  The Clueless One has moved on to unnamed new pursuits, leaving his Cubune job without ever retracting the patently stupid things he wrote about Wells and the other young pitching studs most responsible for the resurgence of the Sox.  Wells sailed through five innings with a three-hit shutout in awesome fashion.  

The Sox staked him a 3-0 lead including solo dingers by Mark Johnson and Jose Canseco, the latter starting for the second consecutive day in right field for Jerry Manuel.  Each finished with two hits and batting averages over .300.  Not bad for guys who started this season in Charlotte and Newark.

Wells made a mistake walking a batter in the sixth, then compounded his problems by surrendering back-to-back dingers allowing the Brewers to tie the game at 3-3.

No problem for the Resurgent Sox!  Jeff Liefer led off the top of the seventh with a walk.  A double, a single, and a walk later had the Sox up 4-3 and set up for a huge inning.  The Sox could only pick up one more run, thanks to a pinch hit foul popout by Paul Konerko and an inning-ending flyout by Chris Singleton.

The real insurance came in the eighth inning when Carlos Lee and Jeff Liefer each homered to plate three more Sox runs.  The Sox slugged 12 hits off Milwaukee pitching, including six extra-base hits. 

Jon Garland (another ex-"overrated phenom") pitched three near-flawless innings in relief for his fourth save, the lone blemish a meaningless solo homerun allowed with two out in the ninth inning.

A game over .500 in mid-July is hardly what Sox Fans had in mind last spring, but that's what we've been dealt.  Time to focus on winning more games and see what else we can shake loose from the trees.

Oh look, here comes Cleveland and Boston!

Let's Go Go Go White Sox, Chicago's Proud of You!