It's the White Sox and the lowly Mariners and you settle into your chair ready to enjoy Mark Buehrle work.  But a comedy of errors, poor defense, bad pitches, etc. give Seattle a 3-0 lead before you can even get comfortable.  And you think "Oh great, one of these nights."

You figure a game after a thirteen run outburst and a night where the Sox had to travel from Oakland to home, arriving long after midnight, surely this is the result.  Bonehead defense.  Offense flat as a pancake.  And, for a couple innings, you were right.  And at that point, you seriously considered joining Chief Johnson and priority homicide or perhaps checking out the hotly contested Olympic beach volleyball.

But when the trance wore off, the Sox bats started hitting again and voilà!  The Sox win combined with Oakland holding off the Twinkies vaulted the Sox back into first place in the AL Central.

Mark Buehrle pitched similar to John Danks Saturday.  He clearly didn't have his best stuff, but hung in there until the offense could get him out from under then turned it over to his bullpen to nail it down. 

The offense again played long ball, the key bomb being a three run job by Nick Swisher, who despite not hitting for a very high average has had several big and game changing hits for the Sox this year.  I've read and heard some say he's been a disappointment, but as long as he continues to get clutch hits and change the direction of games, he can hit .220 for all I care.

Tonight, lefty Clayton Richard gets a huge start.  Huge for him, that is.  If Richards can succeed against a pretty good hitting Seattle team, he might find himself getting more opportunities down the stretch.  If he pitches like he did in Kansas City, he may get a one way bus ticket back to Charlotte and wind up in a deal for the next Carlos Quentin.

Perhaps tonight, the Sox will continue to defy expectations.