Welcome back to second place. Again.

And the White Sox prove they cannot handle too much success as they lose 6-4 to the Rangers while the "scrappy" Twins do it to it in 10 frames over the Tiggers 5-4, sending the Sox to 1/2 game behind their AL Central brethren. The main culprits tonight were Jon Garland's proclivity to give up a lot of meaty doubles and the Sox's anemic offense, which was again homer-centric (always a red flag with this team). It's never a good sign when Ross Gload starts in right field over Magglio, who apparently had a sore leg prior to the game, even though he came in the game late to pinch-hit (and was quickly intentionally walked and pinch-run for). It's also never a good sign to see both Mike "The Thriller" Jackson and the .087-hitting Ben Davis in the same game (and christ did Davis look awful on his game-ending K...but to give MJ credit, he had a rare 1-2-3 appearance). The Sox actually tied it at 4 in the 8th on a solo shot by Jose Valentin, who had struck out his first 3 times up, and then they threatened with a double by CLee immediately after that. But an untimely GIDP by Paulie K. and a Ross Gload whiff ended the threat. Damaso Marte put a capper on it all by having a terrible 9th inning and allowing Rod Barajas to double in a deuce to take the lead.

Up next is a huge 22-game swing through the entirety of the AL Central, including a measly 3 games against the Twins. The ALC has turned out to be less of a garbage dump than I expected this year, with the Indians and Tigers both having decent seasons and still threatening below the surface, so this is a huge stretch of games for the Sox, one in which they could put some much-needed room between themselves and the never-say-die Twinkies, and could help crush the playoff hopes of the Jndjans and/or Tigers. I'll be heading out to the Cell on Sunday for sure, and possibly for one of the Twins games next week. Looking forward to it.