You see what happens when you hit Chicago White Sox?  You see what happens when you worry about your own business and let the Rays take care of their own? That's what I'm talking about.

It's great when you put all aspects of your game together even if it was a little flawed.  Pick up six, give up three doesn't work for me. Throwing errors with two outs in the ninth don't work for me.  But hey, after the three crappy games in New York, I'll take what I can get.

The biggest positive to come out of this game was Octavio Dotel and Scott Linebrink not giving up any runs in relief.  keeping that trend up will become key if the Sox are still playing two weeks from now.

The other big positive is in watching several Twins games this week, Captain Obvious has discovered that their young pitchers arms are about to fall off.  Glen Perkins didn't make it out of the first inning Thursday night.  Nick Blackburn didn't last long Friday night.  Their quality starts have turned into cameo appearances lately.  This is why if the Sox can cobble together any kind of coherent offense and any kind of help from the bullpen this weekend, they could arrive in Minnesota with at least a 3½ game lead.  That in my mind is key.

If the Sox go into Minnesota with the guarantee of leaving in first place, that will relax them a lot.  Knowing that they would only have to win two out of three or one out of three is a lot better than going in tied or a half game up and going into the final three games against Cleveland having to sweep to make the playoffs.

Boys, the Twinkies are ripe for the picking right now.  Let's get out the big guns and take them down.

Lightning Round

• Although Superman is taking a few practice flights, Ozzie doesn't think he'll be leaping any tall buildings in a single bound anytime soon.
• The Cheat says Haracio Ramirez has gone places even Mike MacUseless and the great Bryan Ward haven't.  That's impressive. In a sick sort of way.  (South Side Sox)
• The Twinkies are playing a 2:55 game today, so we'll know early how the Sox fare.  Of course, if you live in Chicago you won't see it because Fox has Cub-Cardinals and here in Wisconsin, we're part of the 9% of the country that gets to see the Brewers and Reds. At least the Sox are on WGN tonight.
  
• Glad to see that managerial move in Milwaukee is paying dividends.  I don't think anything can right this ship.  What makes it even sadder, is that after this year, the Brewers probably head back to the second division for a couple of years while they retool their pitching.  It sucks to have been so close and not have succeeded.  That's a special place only Cub fans usually get to go.