With a four home run offensive onslaught, the Chicago White Sox did something that they didn't even do in the historic year of 2005: Won a series in Oakland.  Thanks to Juan Uribe, Carlos Quentin, Jermaine Dye and Alexi Ramirez, the Sox scored a boatload of runs in a place that has haunted them since 2000.

They are still tied for the AL Central with the Twinkies, but they did narrow the gap on the wildcard to 1½ games.  Hopefully they won't need it.

Javier Vazquez, staked to an early 6-0 lead had no choice but to pitch well, going eight innings of one run ball.  Clayton Richards pitched the ninth striking out two. 

The Sox arrived home sometime after midnight to prepare for a three game series at U.S. Commiskey Park with the Seattle Mariners.  Before one dismisses Seattle based on their record, they gave the Twinkies all they could handle over the weekend.  Even though they were swept, they did put up 17 runs over the weekend.

The Twinkies open a series tonight against Oakland before hitting the road for a long west coast road trip.

Okay, so what did we learn over the weekend?

• The Sox can go from awful to mediocre to unreal in the scope of three games.  Friday night they blew a lead and should have won, Saturday they played barely well enough to win and Sunday they blew the Athletics out of the park.
• Matt Thornton, when he is right, is awesome.  If Ozzie doesn't over tax him down the stretch, he may be one of those horses you can ride to a division championship.
• Junior is still adjusting to the American League.  I wonder how inspired he will be tonight against Seattle. 
  
• Juan Uribe makes Joe Crede being out a moot point.  Even if Crede returns for the stretch drive, how much more does he offer the Sox over Uribe who is just starting to hit?
• Javy Vazquez has had back to back solid outings, albeit against weak opponents.  The Sox desperately need him to continue brining his "A" game to every start if they want to win the division.  Captain Obvious maybe, but Javy's career .500 record is no accident.
• Ozzie Guillen showed a lot of confidence in John Danks on Saturday, allowing him to pitch the sixth inning even though he was over 100 pitches.  True, Ozzie's motivation may have been to save an arm in the pen, but maybe this small gesture will help Danks continue his growth as a starter.  We'll also find out if the high pitch count is an issue in Danks' next start, scheduled for Friday against Tampa Bay.
• Heard on Saturday's broadcast: I thought Glen Kuiper and Leo Mazzone did a good job save for one small goof by Kuiper.  When listing all the teams Alan Embree played for, Kuiper mentioned he was a former Cub. Wrong, Glen.  Embree spent part of 2001 with the Sox, which is one of ten uniforms he has modeled during his big league career.  By the way, Steve Stone missed the series for some reason.  I guess he doesn't want to get close to Glen Kuiper's brother Duane, the voice of the Giants, who hit his only major league homer off of Stoney in 1977.  Had Stoney checked the schedule, he would have realized that Duane Kuiper was in Atlanta.