Jake Peavy was masterful today on the mound. He went 8 innings, only giving up 3 hits and retired 17 of the last 18 batters he faced to earn his 5th victory of the season. Peavy didn't walk a batter and struck out 6, including the last two men he faced. With only 108 pitches, I thought Peavy would talk Ozzie Guillen into letting him go for the shutout, but Guillen brought in Matt Thornton to finish the game.
Not to be outdone was the outstanding effort by the White Sox offense. Brent Lillibridge, who started the game at first base, blasted a shot into the upper deck in the 2nd to give the Sox a 1-0 lead.
The offense really started going in the 4th. Paul Konerko led off with an upper deck shot of his own to make it 2-0. Carlos Quentin and Alex Rios followed with back to back doubles for another run. Rios eventually scored on a Brent Morel force out to make it 4-0.
In the 7th, Morel led off with a double and scored on an Alexei Ramirez bomb into the left field seats to make it 6-0. In the 8th, Rios crushed a solo shot of his own to give the Sox a 7-0 lead.
Every starter had at least one hit in what was one of the finest games the White Sox have played all season long.
* Besides the homers, the Sox had a nice approach at the plate off of Duensing. There were a lot of hard hit balls to the opposite way. Quentin had 2 doubles to right, one bomb off the top of the wall and one liner over the first base bag. Morel hit the right field wall for a double of his own and Lillibridge also had a smash single to right.
* Tyler Flowers gunned down Matt Tolbert on an attempted steal of 2nd base.
* Alex Rios has looked really good at the plate the last 2 games.
* I miss an upper deck in the outfield. I had flashbacks of Ron Kittle and Greg Luzinski when Lillibridge and Konerko blasted those homers into the 2nd deck.
* The Sox sweep in Minnesota was their first since June 29- July 1 2004.
WP: Jake Peavy (5-5)
LP: Brian Duensing (8-10)
HR: Lillibridge (9), Konerko (26), Ramirez (11), Rios (7)
Tomorrow the Sox travel to Baltimore to face the Orioles as John Danks faces Jeremy Guthrie at 6 PM.
Record: 55-58| Box