By all accounts, it was about as successful of a debut as Ken Griffey Jr. and the White Sox could have hoped for. Junior reached base 3 times, fielded only one lazy fly ball, and drove in each of the Sox first two runs, with each of those runs coming with 2-outs and a man in scoring position, a situation the Sox have particularly struggled with this season, hitting just .194/.305/.325 as a team.

With Javier Vazquez, a flyball pitcher, on the mound, and the spacious Kauffman Stadium outfield, it didn't appear to be a great situation for Griffey to make his return to everyday duties in center field. But luck, not to mention the wind, was on Griffey's side, as the only ball that came his way was a routine pop-up, which he fielded just as routinely.

Vazquez had his best outing in, well, I'd have to look it up. It's been a while. Yep, it was his best outing since May. He appeared to tire a bit in the late innings, as he struggled to limit damage in the 6th inning. Ozzie made the right move going to the pen to start the 7th, even though it started with a bit of mess.

Thankfully, Trey Hillman, who has done a number of questionable things against the Sox this season (though none that I can think of off the top of my head), kept the bunt on in a 3-2 count to give DJ Carrasco his first out of the inning. Juan Uribe would make a couple of nice plays to close out the inning, and the Sox escaped unscathed.

Uribe was in the middle of everything in the last few innings. He supplied a true 2-out hit in the Sox 3-run 6th, after Mark Grudzielanek gifted the Sox a pair to keep the inning alive, and added nice defensive plays in each of the last 3 innings.

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• Joe Crede went 0-3 with an error in his first rehab start with Charlotte. He was pulled before the game was over, but Mark Gonzales makes no mention of it, and says he's due to be back by Wednesday.

• After the game, Ozzie made it sound as if we'll see more of Uribe at third until Crede is back.

  "Uribe plays third base pretty good," Guillen said. "And I don't right now Fields is swinging the bat the way we think he can swing the bat. I'm going to sacrifice a little bit of offense for some defense. I need better defense right now. I think the offense is going to be fine, I just need Uribe to catch the ball most of the time."

  That's fine with me considering it looked like the Twins had read all of the Throw Fastballs to Fields book earlier this week.

• Also, to go along with the "we need more defense" theme, Ozzie showed a quick and proper hook, pulling Junior for Brian Anderson after he reached base with a 2-out walk in the 8th.

In July of 2003, benched and mired in a 0-15 slump, Paul Konerko was called upon as a pinch hitter with lefty Eddie Guardado on the mound in extra innings. Konerko saw only one pitch, tying the game which Frank Thomas would end two innings later. Konerko entered that game with a batting line of .185/.260/.265 and just 3 HR. He hit .279/.346/.519 with 15 HR the rest of the season.

Five years later, Konerko strode to the plate, his average freshly moved below .200 with an 0-4 night so far. Again he found himself facing a lefty, but this time it was one he OWNS. Seriously. Konerko saw Gobble three times last season, and hit 3 HR... on 6 pitches. Wednesday would be no different. 1 pitch. HR. The last 4 times he's faced Gobble he's put the ball over the fence, and did so on first pitch in 3 of those occasions.

I'm not saying that this single hit will turn his season around, but we've seen it happen before. And had I written a recap for the series opener, I would have noted that I liked Konerko's approach yesterday, even if it didn't net good results.

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Alright, let's get to some quick bullet points so I can catch some shut eye.

• Alexei Ramirez had a crazy game. He went 0-for at the plate, but worked two walks. YES! Two walks. He was called out at home following an appeal after he failed to touch home on a Carlos Quentin groundball/error combo. And in the field he made 4--Yes! FOUR!--barehand plays. While none of them was particularly spectacular, they were all above average plays that necessitated a gloveless play. The last one might have been the best if only because it came on a ball that was deflected and would have put the Royals up in extra innings had he not been able to get the out.
• While Ramirez was making 4 very good plays at second, AJ Pierzynski was making sure Mark Grudzielanek stayed alert by routinely grounding out to second base 5--Yes! FIVE!--times.

• The bullpen was magnificent, and, in all honesty, should get full credit for this win even though Bobby Jenks blew the save. Jenks pitched well. He just gave up an infield single, a seeing eye single, a bunt, and another bouncer up the middle to blow it. Everything was on the ground, and nothing was hit particularly hard.

  Jenks came back with some quick work in the 10th, followed by Boone Logan and Octavio Dotel. The trio combined to pitch 6 hitless innings in extra time. Logan's 2.1 innings were particularly swift. He threw just 18 pitches (14 strikes) and didn't allow a baserunner.

• Nick Masset saw his first inentional high-leverage work, getting out of a bases loaded jam in the 6th inning, which was something like 5 hours ago.
• If the Sox had lost that game, this would be another post about how the offense sucks.
• I'm betting the Sox draft Brett Wallace later today.