Jon Garland solidified his stranglehold on the title of White Sox Best Starting Pitcher with his third complete game shutout of the Detroit Tigers in two seasons. He's allowed just one earned run in his last 23.2 innings pitched, and allowed 2 runs or less in 8 of his last 11 starts. -- I don't have time to look it up right now, but I'd be willing to bet you'd have to go back a combined 30 starts from the other 4 starters to find 8 games with 2-or-fewer runs allowed.
Garland's strong effort was bolstered by a number of great plays by the defense behind him, the most spectacular of which was 5-7-3 put out on a Sean Casey line drive (video). Casey lined a ball just out of Joe Crede's reach, bouncing into left field off of his glove. Casey thought Crede had caught the ball, and did a pirouette of anger before realizing that the ball had fallen into left field and running to first base. The hesitation, and Pablo Ozuna's quick barehand of the ball, gave Ozuna the opportunity to just nip him at first base with a strong throw. In the past, I've joked that Konerko could be thrown out by a left fielder on a line drive, but I never thought I'd actually see it happen.
It looks like Jim Thome will miss the entire Twins series, which may not be the huge blow that it was earlier this season. Thome hasn't been hitting for much power lately, and with Mackowiak and Gload on the bench, the Sox have the bats to match his recent level of performance. The time off might be just what Thome needs to get his wrist and power back to the form it was in the first half.