The White Sox were in trouble from the very start in this game as Gavin Floyd had one of his worst starts of the season. He worked the first three innings last Monday allowing 5 hits, 4 earned runs, walked 2 batters and whiffed 4 as he was the losing pitcher. Paul Konerko had a solid game as he was 2 for 4 with a run scored, homer and RBI. Jermaine Dye also had a good game with the bat going 1 for 3 with a run scored, homer and RBI. The White Sox just couldn’t get much going with the bats in this game and their season ended because of that as the Rays won this series 3-1.

The White Sox staved off elimination yesterday as John Danks pitched a solid game. He worked the first 6.2 innings allowing 7 hits, 3 earned runs, walked 3 batters and whiffed 7. He was the winning pitcher. Octavio Dotel and Matt Thornton worked 1.1 shutout innings to set up Bobby Jenks for the save. Jenks worked a scoreless 9th inning to seal this win. Dewayne Wise had another huge game with the bat. Wise was 1 for 2 with a run scored, double, 2 RBIs and a stolen base. Ken Griffey Jr. and A.J. Pierzynski eached pitched in with 2 hits apiece yesterday. The White Sox are now down 2-1 to the Rays.

The White Sox scored 2 runs in the first inning and then the Rays’ pitchers got serious shutting out the Pale Hose for the next 8 frames. Jermaine Dye had a really solid game for the White Sox last night as he was 4 for 5. Orlando Cabrera also had a decent game going 2 for 4 with a run scored. Mark Buehrle was the starting and losing pitcher for the White Sox last night as he worked the first 7 innings of the game allowing 10 hits, 5 earned runs and striking out 3 batters. Octavio Dotel also had a rough time working 2/3 of an inning and allowing 1 hit, 1 earned run and whiffing 1 batter. The White Sox are now down 2-0 against the Rays in this series.

The Rays jumped all over Javier Vazquez in this game and it was too much for the White Sox to overcome. Vazquez worked the first 4.1 innings last night and he allowed 8 hits, 6 earned runs, walked 1 batter and whiffed 6. He earned the loss by giving up two longballs to rookie 3B Evan Longoria. Clayton Richard did a great job of keeping the White Sox close as he worked 3.1 innings of scoreless baseball while whiffing 5 batters. Octavio Dotel whiffed the only batter he pitched to in this game. Dewayne Wise was the star of the game for the White Sox as he belted a 3-run homer in the 3rd inning off of James Shields with two outs to give the White Sox a 3-1 lead at the time. A.J. Pierzynski also had a solid game with the bat going 2 for 3 with a run scored. 1B Paul Konerko was 2 for 4 with a 1 run scored and 1 RBI. His run and RBI came in the ninth inning on a solo homer off of Dan Wheeler. The White Sox are now down 1-0 in this series.

The Chicago White Sox won a 1-game playoff with the Twins to advance to the playoffs and meet up with the Tampa Bay Rays. John Danks was the biggest star of this game for the White Sox as he started the game and worked 8 innings allowing only 2 hits and 0 runs. He improved to 12-9 on the season which is a lot better than he pitched as a rookie the season before. Bobby Jenks finished up with a scoreless 9th inning to pick up his 30th save of the season. DH Jim Thome had the big hit on offense as he clubbed a homer in the 7 inning off of Nick Blackburn and the pitchers of the White Sox made it stand up. But, it was a play by Ken Griffey Jr. and A.J. Pierzynski that gave Thome a chance to be the hero. Griffey caught a ball in center field and he made a good throw to the plate that A.J. Pierzynski caught on one hop and tagged out Michael Cuddyer at the plate to preserve the shutout. The White Sox will now fly to Tampa, Florida to deal with the upstart Tampa Bay Rays.