The Chicago White Sox gained bragging rights this year as they topped the Chicago Cubs 5-0 today at Wrigley Field and won the season series 4-2.  White Sox rookie pitcher Carlos Torres gained his first major league win by going seven strong innings while giving up five hits, with six strikeouts, and no walks.  Torres showed great poise and control while pitching from the stretch the whole game, a rare thing to see from a starting pitcher.

Torres got some help from the White Sox offense as they had 13 hits with A.J. Pierzynski, Paul Konerko, Carlos Quentin, and Alexei Ramirez each getting an RBI for the White Sox.  Torres also got help from the Cubs defense, or lack-there-of, as the Cubs recorded two errors.  Jake Fox flat out missed a pick off attempt to first by pitcher Ryan Dempster which moved Chris Getz into scoring position who then scored on a Ramirez single.  Alfonso Soriano’s error in the 8^th cost the Cubs a run as well.  Soriano turned an everyday fly ball from Pierzynski into a three base error allowing Gordon Beckham to score from first.

The White Sox have now won two in a row after today’s victory and a rare win at their final game ever in the Minnesota Twins’ Metrodome on Wednesday.  This seems to be too little too late for the White Sox, as they went 3-8 on this road trip and are now 7 games back of the Detroit Tigers and 2 games back of the second place Twins.  With 27 games left to play, it seems as if the White Sox have played their way out of contention.

White Sox fans have to wonder why manager Ozzie Guillen had not gone to Torres earlier in the season, as he was 10-4 with a 2.39 ERA in 23 games for AAA Charlotte.  The recently traded Jose Contreras was a disaster this year and with Torres showing such strong numbers in AAA, it couldn’t have hurt to get him a few starts earlier this season.

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.