White Sox 10, Red Sox 7: Missile leads assault on Aceves

Alfredo Aceves entered his start against the White Sox with a career record of 16-1. That's impressive, if only because he's been a reliever for most of his career. He's benefited from good timing and good teams (he went 10-1 out of the bullpen for the 2009 Yankees).

His luck continued as he made the jump to Boston's rotation, allowing just two runs over the 11 combined innings from his two starts.

The White Sox felt things needed to even out a little. They jumped on Aceves with a four-run second and sustained their attack until they reached double digits. It was the first time they scored 10 runs in a game since April 6. They did it all without leaving the yard, and Alexei Ramirez led the way with a four-hit night.

Ramirez also owned the most important of the White Sox's 15 hits, and it came in the second inning. They opened up a 2-0 lead on Boston, as Gordon Beckham singled with the bases loaded, and Brent Morel hit into a run-scoring fielder's choice-turned-error when Jed Lowrie couldn't handle it cleanly.

But Juan Pierre tapped out to the mound, which gave Aceves the opportunity to escape a tough jam with relatively minimal damage. Ramirez had other ideas, like bouncing a single through the middle to drive two more runs in.

That gave Phil Humber a comfortable cushion, and he took advantage of it. He pitched without fear, throwing first-pitch strikes to 23 of the 31 batters he faced, and only issuing one walk over his 7 2/3 innings. Outside of a Jason Varitek solo shot, that approach paid off for him.

Funny thing is, he actually deserved a better fate. The Red Sox started hitting him in the seventh, and he left the game with a 10-2 lead and two runners on. Will Ohman came in to face David Ortiz, and he allowed a three-run shot over the Green Monster to turn it into a ballgame. Because of Ohman, Humber missed out on a quality start, even though his start was quality.

Brian Bruney, making his White Sox debut, made it far more interesting than it should've been in the ninth. He had trouble getting the ball down, walking the first batter he faced on five pitches and allowing two runs to cross the plate. He required the services of Chris Sale to finish the game, and Sale did so in impressive fashion, striking out Adrian Gonzalez on three pitches.

Because the tying run was on deck, Sale earned his second save of the year.

Notes:

*Alex Rios earned an outfield assist the easy way in the fifth inning. Carl Crawford ran while Lowrie hit a flyball, and after he slid into second, he took a step towards third before retreating to first. Ramirez noticed he never touched the bag on his way back, and stepped on second for the second out of the inning.

*Adam Dunn went 1-for-2 with two walks, and he avoided striking out for just the third time in his last 22 games.

*Bobby Jenks pitched against his former team for the first time, and had a Jenks-like inning. Brent Lillibridge missed a homer by a foot, hitting off the uppermost part of the Green Monster, and was held to a single. That put runners on first and third with one out, but Jenks was able to snag Paul Konerko's liner for a 1-3 double play to escape unscathed.

Record: 26-31 | Box score | Play-by-play