From yesterday:
Another day, another win. This time, the Sox rallied for five runs against James Shields in the sixth and Dayan Viciedo added an eighth-inning home run to push the White Sox past Tampa Bay 7-2. And with Cleveland losing to Kansas City:
The White Sox are in first place. Chuck Garfien has a good rundown of how the Sox got here and how they aim to stay in contention for four more months.
Dayan Viciedo's been a big part of the recent hot streakturnaround, driving in 23 runs in May with eight home runs. After Tuesday's game, Frank Thomas broke down what Viciedo's been doing right:
And, of course, Paul Konerko's been extremely important, even if he's come back down to earth a bit in these last two games. On Tuesday afternoon, he was rewarded for his efforts with AL Player of the Week honors -- the second time he's won that award this year.
Yet with everything seemingly breaking in the White Sox favor, attendance remains an issue. We'll see what the numbers look like for the upcoming nine-game homestand against Seattle, Toronto and Houston, but there seems to be a pretty good movement among the fans to get other fans to head out to the park. Chicago Tribune Live had a good debate on the attendance issues:
Justin Verlander gave up five runs as Detroit fell to Boston 6-3. That has a few bits of significance: First, with a 23-26 record, the Tigers are only one game ahead of the White Sox pace through 49 games from last year; and second, it means Chris Sale now has the best ERA of any American League starter. His 15-strikeout Memorial Day performance ranks as the fifth-best start a White Sox pitcher has had against Tampa Bay, though.
MLB
Around the division: Grady Sizemore is frustrated as he tries to work his way back to Cleveland, Magglio Ordonez will announce his retirement and be honored Sunday in Detroit, the Tigers shipped Ryan Raburn off to Triple-A, Minnesota Josh Willingham dealt Oakland their seventh straight loss and Kevin Goldstein looks at the top 15 draft prospects.