The scoreboard in right field read KC - 6, MIN - 0. John Danks was pitching well enough, and the Sox clung to a slim 4-3 lead. The door was open for the Sox to step right back into control of the AL Central race. But a tough start to the 5th inning for John Danks, and a bullpen that refuses to provide any relief slammed the door shut.

John Danks wasn't great Friday, but he wasn't nearly as bad as the box score makes him appear. His biggest crime was walking Ben Francisco in one of those How Was That A Walk at-bats immediately following a Don Cooper mound visit. Danks followed his no-out walk to load the bases with single to Shin-Soo Choo, finishing his night down 5-4.

Ozzie was forced to turn to the bullpen, which turned in a performance that would have to make even Jose Paniagua cringe. DJ Carrasco started the reliever roulette by throwing 5 straight pitches outside the strike zone to load the bases and put himself in a Here Comes A Grooved Fastball situation. Ryan Garko, homered off Danks in the 4th, welcomed Carrasco's center-cut fastball by sending it just over the outstretched glove of a wall-climbing Brian Anderson in center field.

Following the grand slam, Carrasco hit Franklin Gutierrez with a pitch. A clearly disgusted Guillen chased Carrasco from the mound and handed the ball to Mike MacDougal, of all people, in search of somebody, anybody, who could throw strikes and get a batter out. MacDougal promptly hit the first batter he saw, and fell behind the second 3-0.

Boos rained down from the crowd even before Carrasco allowed the grand slam, and though they had grown larger now that the Indians had sent 9 men to the plate and had yet to make an out, it was almost as if the sellout crowd was enjoying unloading their frustrations on the terrible display from the bullpen. Finally a strike. A huge Bronx cheer rolled through the crowd, thirsty for even the slightest display of competence.

MacDougal retired the next three batters in order to stop the bleeding, but walked the bases loaded in the next inning before being pulled. Ehren Wasserman added to the parade with a 4-pitch walk of his own to force in a run. And eventually Horacio Ramirez saw action, adding a run onto his historically bad record with the Sox.

If the Sox weren't essentially in a dead-heat in the Central with just 2+ games to play, it might be comical. But it's not. There's nothing funny about Octavio Dotel finding his dominant stuff when the game has been decided, but serving up longballs anytime the game is in doubt. There's nothing funny about a game which features double-barreled suck, while Nessie remains only a legend, an old wives tale you hear from section 160 season ticket holders. There's nothing funny about watching the season go down the tubes in the weakest AL Central division since 2000.

It says a lot about the game as a whole that when I go searching for something nice to say, I turn to a couple good effort, close but no cigar plays by Nick Swisher and Brian Anderson attempting to bring back homerun balls.

After the Rain Comes a Rainbow

Record rain fell on Chicago Saturday, postponing the White Sox scheduled doubleheader with the Tigers. Rain fell all afternoon and night on Friday, postponing that scheduled game to after the end of the "regular season." Rain fell all morning and into the early afternoon on Sunday, delaying the start of game one of the doubleheader by 3 hours and 11 minutes. According to head groundskeeper Roger Bossard, US Cellular Field saw about 9.5 inches of rain during the 50 hour span when the ACE hardware tarp saw more TV time than actual players. To his credit, the playing condition of the field was not an issue even with the record-setting rains.

The sun never came out; there wasn't any parting of the clouds, or a rainbow straddling the stadium; but there was baseball to be played. And after two days cooped up in flooded northern Chicagoland, that was good enough for me. With the Twins dropping a game to the faltering Orioles, the Sox had an opportunity to take advantage and pick up the 1.5 games they lost in their last doubleheader effort. And take advantage they did.

Vazquez Victorious, Verlander Vanquished

The White Sox have an incredible record against Justin Verlander. For some reason, they just seem to have the Detroit ace's number. But for the first half of the opening game, it looked like Verlander might have the Sox number on this night. Thankfully, Javier Vazquez was there to match him pitch-for-pitch.

The offense seemed content to help Verlander out in the early going, making an inning's worth of outs on the basepaths. Juan Uribe singled home Ken Griffey Jr. after he hit a double off the wall to put the Sox on the board after 5. That might have been enough for Vazquez, who altered his side-session schedule to be ready to go on short rest Saturday, but the offense didn't stop there. Alexei Ramirez added a solo-shot. And in the 8th, after Vazquez had been lifted, the Sox strung together a 2-run, 2-out rally.

That 4-0 lead headed to the ninth gave Ozzie Guillen some flexibility. I thought it would be a good time to turn to Scott Linebrink for some easy late-inning work to continue to ease him back into higher leverage situations. But Guillen decided to turn to Bobby Jenks, who has been getting hit around lately. The two runs he allowed were essentially meaningless, but he still brought the tying run to the plate for the second straight time in a non-save situation.

Wise, Thornton Rescue Wobbly Pen

John Danks was originally scheduled to pitch on Friday. In fact, his start was pushed to Sunday because he had gotten warmed up Friday when it still appeared as if the game would be played. So Ozzie had to keep an eye on the 23-year old southpaw who has seemed to tire over the last month. Danks showed no ill-effects from the impromptu side-session, and probably would have gone deeper into the game if not for the lingering concerns about his workload and a seemingly comfortable 7-0 lead. That lead would prove to be much more precarious than it seemed when Danks left the game and especially after ESPN cut the Carlos Zambrano no-hitter.

With the exception of Matt Thornton, the bullpen has provided no relief lately. In addition to Jenks troubles which I touched on above; the lightning has escaped DJ Carrasco's bottle; Octavio Dotel has allowed 8 homers, including the game-tying grand slam Sunday night, since the All-Star break; Linebrink is understandably rusty, and probably not 100% after spending 2 months on the DL; Ehren Wasserman has sprinkled brief outings of effectiveness in between long periods of awful. I think it says a lot about the shape of the White Sox pen that Mike MacDougal, who spent nearly the entire season wasting away in Charlotte, might be the best available right-hander right now. So, when the Sox managed to blow a 7-run lead over the span of about 25 minutes, it's hard (read: impossible, to those who possess critical thinking ability) to blame Ozzie for the blowup.

As quickly as the Sox lead disappeared at the hands of a grand slam allowed by their bullpen, it was given back by a grand slam off the bat of Dewayne Wise off an equally bad Tigers pen (read: Kyle Farnsworth). Wise, who drove in a key insurance run while starting in LF of the first game, earned himself some more playing time in Konerko's absence with his day of work, culminating in his pinch-hit, eventual game-winning slam and curtain call.

The two victories, which lowered the White Sox Magic Number to 13 and increased their division lead over the Twins to 1.5 games, were the spoonful of sugar to wash down the medicine that is the alarmingly shaky bullpen. The Sox will need to rely heavily on the pen down the stretch, as they eventually plan on throwing some starters on short rest. It goes without saying that the pen can not continue to pitch this poorly if the Sox have hopes of holding off the Twins in the final 13 or 14 games (if necessary).

Meta (Moron Prevention)

We get it. The bullpen blew a lead. Therefore, Ozzie is an idiot. You have AOL--don't they all--and you seem to think it's your god-given right to use it as an avenue to vent your misdirected rage.

Thanks to an influx of, how do I say this nicely--ah, fuck, who cares about being nice--short-bus riding mouth-breathers, who think that the ability to complete the registration process and string together 75 words gives them poetic license to infect this site with their own special blend of ill-informed stupidity, I've implemented a 24-hour waiting period for all new posters. This obviously won't effect any of the regular users here, but it should help curb the mongoloids who wish to misdirect their anger towards Ozzie and other troll-types.

Monday's ceaseless rain has caused yet another pitching crunch for the White Sox. Without an off-day between now and Tuesday's double-header, one of today's starters (Javier Vazquez or Clayton Richard) has to go on short rest in their next start, or the Sox have to call upon another option.

According to the Tribune's Mark Gonzales, Don Cooper "virtually ruled out" Aaron Poreda as an option, with Gonzales going on to cite the layoff since Poreda's final regular season start on 8/29 as a reason he isn't an option. Of course, for those of you who follow Larry's interminably-titled minor league threads, you know that Poreda pitched just a few days ago, on the 5th to be exact. He struck out 9 and walked 2 in 6 innings of 2-run ball in the Southern League playoffs.

The other options appear to be Lance Broadway (no, thanks) and DJ Carrasco, which would require the shift of some high-leverage bullpen work to Scott Linebrink and/or Mike MacDougal.

All of the options have their drawbacks. Javy pitching on short rest might require a quick hook and a rare economical effort from him on Tuesday. Carrasco would need to be given a few days of buffer on either side of Saturday where he was unavailable from the pen. Broadway would require the purchase of some revolutionary new padded uniforms for our defenders. And Poreda would be making his major league debut in the middle of playoff race.

All of this is my way of saying, 'hey, we needed something to talk about this morning following an off-day. Why not this?'

Jose Contreras was in top form for an inning and two-thirds Saturday night. His fastball was in the mid-90's. His forkball was dancing. He even ditched the sidearm delivery that so often gets him in trouble.

Then he had to run to cover first base.

With 2 outs in the second, Jacoby Ellsbury hit a groundball to Nick Swisher at first. Contreras took a bit of circuitous route to cover and take the flip. He stumbled as he got close to the base line, missed the flip from Swisher, and crumbled to the ground as he crossed the bag. He stayed down for a couple of minutes, and needed help to get off the field, the victim of a ruptured achilles tendon.

We have probably seen Contreras throw his last pitch in a White Sox uniform, possibly ever. With Contreras' age and the long recovery time for an injury of this type, I'd be surprised if we ever see him throw another pitch as meaningful as his last one. Contreras' career as a major leaguer might have ended in a heap just a few feet beyond first base.

For the White Sox, the obvious question is who replaces Contreras? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers, and the complicated answers are probably less than satisfactory as well. The Sox have three routes they can take to replace Contreras in the rotation:

1. Give the job to Carrasco -- DJ Carrasco has made two excellent extended relief outings this season, including the 4.1 innings of 1-run ball Saturday night. Unfortunately, with Scott Linebrink on the shelf, Carrasco has taken on more high-leverage work in the bullpen. Moving him to the rotation would mean extra high-leverage work for Dotel, Russell, and whomever is called upon to replace Carrasco.

2. Dip into the minor league well -- The Sox have already gone this route once before with dubious results. Clayton Richard showed what it looks like when you bring up an unheralded pitcher who started the season in A-ball, a lot like '06 Boone Logan, who I'll get to later. Aside from Richard, who I assume has been removed as an option following his last two lackluster performances, the only realistic options in the Sox minor leagues are Jack Egbert, who I jinxed with a mention last week, and 2007 first rounder, Aaron Poreda, whose last three starts in AA have been spectacular.

3. Scour the waiver wire -- Jarrod Washburn has already cleared waivers, and if Paul Byrd hasn't already, he'll easily slip through in the near future. But there's an obvious reason those two will be available; they're not very good. They'll give you consistently poor outings with a few good ones sprinkled in there just to keep you intrigued. And if the Sox have to give up actual talent, or take on actual salary, they're hardly of any interest to me.

While the Sox obviously have to replace Contreras, there's another member of the pitching staff who's overdue being replaced, Boone Logan. In his last 12 outings, he's allowed 20 runs in just, including 4 Saturday, and he's only pitched 8 innings. He's allowed 20 runs in his last 24 outs. There's little reason to keep a guy going through a stretch like that on even the worst team, let alone one trying to win a division crown.

So, assuming the Sox chose option 1 or 2, and I suggest they should, they'll need to be looking at both Egbert and Poreda either way. Whether it's Poreda getting a baptism by fire in the rotation or as a left-handed reliever, they'll need to drop to the minors to pick up two pitchers either way.

[Note by The Cheat, 08/09/08 10:04 PM CDT ]: As I wrote this entry, Buehrleman commented that 670 the Score has reported the Sox have already chosen option 3. They've traded Paulo Orlando, who sucks, and was probably one of the prospects Wilder used to skim money from the Sox, for Kansas City's Horacio Ramirez, who also sucks, but has found success by throwing junk in the strike zone out of the Kansas City pen. Also on the move, though yet to be confirmed, Boone Logan and Josh Fields appear headed to Charlotte. No word on who will be replacing them on the roster, though an infielder would figure to replace Fields; Chris Getz, anyone?

[Uptade by The Cheat, 08/09/08 11:15 PM CDT]: Dave Van Dyck confirms everything we wrote in the previous paragraph.

Well, that went a little better than last year.

Mark Buehrle might have had his best stuff of the season, which, as a soft-tossing lefty, isn't saying much. But his change up and curveball were about as crisp as I've seen them, and it showed in the results. Buehrle's 8 strikeouts were a season high, and he could have walked away after 7 innings, having allowed only 5 baserunners and no runs. Ozzie sent Buehrle out for the 8th, however, where he gave up a leadoff single and was pulled to a standing ovation.

Octavio Dotel relieved Buehrle, though he didn't provide much relief. A walk to JD Drew and a HR to Dustin Pedroia put the Red Sox right back in the game just minutes after Buehrle departed. Matt Thornton made easy work of David Ortiz before DJ Carrasco once again had trouble finding the zone. He was on his way towards walking the tying run into scoring position when Mike Lowell decided to help him out by popping up behind home.

Following the inning ending out, cameras caught AJ Pierzynski jawing at Carrasco on his way to the dugout. I can't be sure that it was anything more than AJ being AJ, but it didn't look like your normal fired up for a big out jabbering. It looked like he was genuinely pissed that Carrasco couldn't get anything over the plate.

Offensively, the Sox scratched out most of their runs the hard way before Carlos Quentin added some much-needed insurance with an 8th inning homer. Juan Uribe had a 2-2 night, and contributed to the Sox big inning with a well executed sacrifice bunt, which allowed Orlando Cabrera to drive in two with a double to right.

• The Sox returned Ehren Wasserman to Charlotte to make room for Jose Contreras, who makes his return to the rotation tomorrow. With Contreras being almost an automatic 'L', Friday's win was extra-huge.
• Buehrle's ERA over his last 16 games is 3.10.
• While having Uribe in the lineup every day is certainly a sub-optimal situation, his play, especially defensively, over the last week has shown exactly why he was a much better fit than Pablo Ozuna for the Sox utility role.

But Sox real battle is with Twins

John Kruk made a good point on the early edition of Baseball Tonight. There's a sentence I didn't think I'd ever be typing. He argued that the better teams--those in contention for the post-season--are at a disadvantage when a bean ball war looks to be breaking out, with his point being that contending clubs are more reticent to have their players suspended.

We could probably host a lively debate on whether the pitches that DJ Carrasco threw were intended to hit Miguel Olivo. Joe Cowley and Mark Gonzales think the Sox and Royals have some history. I'd argue that down 6-0 with the bases loaded isn't exactly the type of spot you start throwing at people. And if we were to judge by Ozzie Guillen's reaction, the plunking certainly wasn't called from the bench.

Back to the point at hand, my first thought as soon as Olivo started charging the mound was "F@#%! Suspensions and ejections are the last thing we need right now." From the actions of all of the Sox players, they had exactly the same thing on their minds. AJ Pierzynski, who's not exactly know for his calming influence, immediately rushed to defuse the cocked-and-loaded Olivo. Though he eventually took a roundhouse from Olivo to the top of the head. Brian Anderson, who was seen throwing absolute haymakers last time the Sox had a similar incident, ran in from the bench not with arms cocked ready for a fight but with both arms extended trying to stop the fracas. To a man, the Sox were looking to avoid the undesirable consequences that come along with releasing some frustration in the form of pugilistics.

The Sox know they're in a pennant race. They know that they need everyone healthy and on the field for the remaining 50+ games. They're not going to risk getting saddled with league-mandated downtime on the Royals. The Twins? Sure. The Tigers or Indians? Probably. But the Royals? No way. They're not worth the effort.

You could almost see Nick Swisher going through those exact thoughts in his his head just after being plunked in the hip by a 94 MPH Zack Grienke fastball.

I'm sure the Royals will have next week's series at USCF circled on their calendars. It's not like they have anything else to look forward to this season. But the Sox, who now sit in second place for the first time since May 16th, which, note to Hawk, is much less than 105 days ago, have much bigger goals than getting even with the freakin' Royals.

I'll be interested to see how the media plays today's game as the season draws to a close. I have a feeling we'll be hearing about how Gardenhire's smart ejection last week helped spark the Twins run, while the incompetently volatile Ozzie Guillen has lost control of his team as they slip into second place.

* * * * *

Be sure to scroll down, as the unusually prolific Cheat chimes in on possible reinforcements for the ailing pitching staff.

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.

* * * * *

• 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.

[whitesox.com]

The Chicago White Sox have optioned right-handed pitcher D.J. Carrasco to Class AAA Charlotte and have sent right-hander Esteban Loaiza to Class AA Birmingham on an injury rehabilitation assignment.

Carrasco's contract was purchased from Charlotte on July 9 to take the roster spot of Bobby Jenks. He made one appearance for the White Sox, allowing one run on four hits over 5.1 IP on July 11 at Texas, the longest appearance by a Sox reliever since Sean Lowe also went 5.1 IP on May 24, 1999 at Cleveland. ...