ESPN

CHICAGO -- Frank Thomas will become a team ambassador for the Chicago White Sox, who plan to retire his No. 35 during "Frank Thomas Day" on Aug. 29.

Read the entire story.

CHICAGO -- The White Sox returned home Monday not only to unpack their suitcases, but to unload their baggage.

A 10-game road trip didn’t quite go as planned, but the comforts of home were enough to help send Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez ducking for cover in a 6-1 White Sox victory.
Hernandez’s four runs allowed over seven innings might not sound like much of a beat down, but considering the White Sox hadn’t scored against the right-hander in 23 consecutive innings before the game started, it sure felt like a laugher.

Hernandez’s streak was actually extended to 25 innings when Juan Pierre and Omar Vizquel delivered back-to-back RBI singles to erase an early 1-0 Mariners lead. John Danks took over from there giving up his lone run on six hits over eight innings with one walk.

Hernandez not only gave up nine hits but he walked three batters. It was the first time since June 8 at Texas that the annual Cy Young candidate gave up more than three runs in an outing.

"You have to limit (runs) for sure,” Danks said about facing Hernandez. “He's going to be pretty good. This was probably one of the worst games he's had all year and he was still pretty darn good. So, we knew we had to pitch well and like I said fortunately we were able to do that.”

The conditions at, and dimensions of U.S. Cellular Field might be equal for both teams on a given night, but the White Sox have learned how to use them well. In the sixth inning, with the game still in doubt, Paul Konerko yanked a home run down the left-field line, A.J. Pierzynski hit a ground-rule double to right and Alexei Ramirez hit an RBI double to center.

"This is a very, very good ballpark to hit,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “You could see Felix when (Konerko) hit the home run, we’re not in Safeco Field. He was very surprised when the ball left the ballpark and how far it went.”

Konerko has put on a clinic this season on how to utilize the team’s home ballpark. He not only is batting .340 at home this year, 16 of his 22 home runs have come while wearing his white pinstripes.

The victory could not have come at a better time as the White Sox not only reversed the trend of a 4-6 road trip, but they maintained their spot alone atop the American League Central. A loss would have dropped the White Sox into a tie for first place with the Twins, who rolled over the Royals.

Even with the fading Detroit Tigers getting no-hit at Tampa Bay on Monday, the expectation continues to be that the A.L. Central race will go down to the wire. The White Sox could have an advantage since 34 of their last 63 games are at home. They are 28-19 at U.S. Cellular Field this season.

“From the outside looking in for all those years it always seemed like the [AL Central champion] played 163 games a couple time here,” Pierre said. “I don’t expect any difference. It’s going to be a dogfight but if we take care of our business, we’ll be there at the end. We don’t right now have to rely on this and that. If we go out and win games then we’ll be fine.”

Pierzynski’s strategy for the season is starting to come together.

“We said from Day 1 of spring training this is going to come down to the last week between some teams,” Pierzynski said. “We just hope we are one of them. Right now, we are in the mix and that’s all you can ask for. If we keep playing [well], it will all work out in the end. All you can ask for as a player and as an organization is to play meaningful games in September. That’s our goal and where we are at.”

By the numbers
8: Consecutive home victories for the White Sox, their longest home win streak since a nine-game run June 17-July 2, 2008. The White Sox have also won 15 of their last 16 home games. In their last 22 home games, the White Sox have hit 38 home runs.

Quote
“It's always nice to get runs, but when you score runs off Felix Hernandez, arguably the best pitcher in baseball, it's nice. I can't imagine trying to hit some of the stuff he was throwing. These guys did a good job. We have 100 percent confidence in these guys.” -- Danks, on whether or not he thought getting to Hernandez would quiet the talk that the White Sox need a hitter at the trade deadline.

Look ahead
Gavin Floyd, and his rapidly descending ERA, will get the call for the White Sox in Tuesday’s game against the Mariners. Floyd (5-8, 3.87) might look like much record-wise, but his 1.16 ERA since June 8 is the lowest in the American League over that span and second lowest to the Marlins’ Josh Johnson (0.94). In a start against the Mariners last week Floyd pitched seven scoreless innings but had a no-decision. Floyd will be opposed by the Mariners’ Ryan Rowland-Smith (1-9, 6.27), who is tied for third in the Al in home runs allowed (20) and won his only game June 20 against the Reds to snap a six-game losing streak.

CHICAGO -- The “crazy” White Sox manager could be at it again, saying Monday that he might be ready to let Bobby Jenks close games again.

After Jenks blew a save at Seattle on Wednesday, his second consecutive poor outing in a save situation, Ozzie Guillen said he would let somebody else close games. The plan was to get Jenks sharp again before he returned to his spot at the back end of the bullpen.

The White Sox didn’t have any save situations over the weekend at Oakland, although Jenks did pitch Sunday with the A’s leading and threw a scoreless inning.

So was that enough to get Jenks his job back?

“I’m crazy man,” Guillen said. “I might just go out there and say I’ll put Bobby in there and just do it. I will show you confidence and I’ll take the heat form the fans and the media saying ‘Why do you put this guy once again in there.’”

Actually, that kind of move wouldn’t be crazy at all. Not only does he show a struggling pitcher that he still has confidence in him, but the last time Jenks needed some work outside of his closer role, it took just one low-profile outing before he was right again.

Guillen wants badly for Jenks to be the trusted closer again. It makes it easier to set up the sixth, seventh and eighth innings when he knows exactly who will pitch the ninth.

“People will always remember what you do wrong,” Guillen said. “Bobby went against Minnesota, one-plus inning up by two runs and he did a good job. The next day he blew the game. Uh, OK. It’s my job to see it. I’ve been watching this kid for four, five, six years. I know when Bobby is good and I know when he’s bad. Right now he’s not too good. My job is to get him back on track to help us to win.”

CHICAGO -- While the White Sox continue to wait for Adam Dunn to decide if he will sign an extension with the Washington Nationals, one intriguing rumor Monday seemed to suggest the left-handed power hitter might not cost as much as originally believed.

ESPN’s Jayson Stark offered the news that Dunn could be headed to the White Sox in a three-player deal, with the Arizona Diamondbacks sending Edwin Jackson to the Nationals. The Diamondbacks would then get pitching prospects, a return that is likely to include Daniel Hudson.

All general manager Ken Williams would say Monday is that the price still remains high to obtain a player via trade, while manager Ozzie Guillen isn’t fond of any move that involves John Danks, Gavin Floyd or Gordon Beckham.

“You have to be cognizant of making a move that is a little too short-sided and jeopardizes your future,” Williams said. “However, with that said, you know me. I can't [lie]; you've seen it before. If there's an opportunity to do something in a major way that doesn't disrupt what we have and adds to it, we'll take that shot."

If Dunn signs the extension being offered by the Nationals, he isn’t expected to be traded. The deadline to make non-waiver deals is Saturday at 3 p.m. CDT.

“If people out there think making trades is easy, if people out there think making trades is like opening a bottle, it’s not,” Guillen said. “You got to give us something to give up something. Right now, I don’t think we’re in a position to lose what we have.”

Getting Dunn, or Prince Fielder for that matter, wouldn’t be as easy as deciding to part ways with just Hudson. Sergio Santos and even first-round pick Chris Sale, who has already made his way to the Triple-A level, might have to be included. Sale, though, would have to be a player to be named later since he can’t be dealt for one year after his signing date.

Guillen continues to say that the trade process makes him nervous and that he will feel much better once the deadline passes. He will give his input but he doesn’t plan on making any hard decisions this week.

“It’s not my style to be in the general manager’s office asking, ‘I need this, I need that,’” Guillen said. “ Maybe in the future I will. I need more time. But in the meanwhile it’s not my job. I don’t get into Kenny’s job, because I don’t want Kenny to get in my job. If I had a different general manager, I might do that. Kenny’s very aggressive with what he needs and what he wants. Meanwhile it is his business to make decisions. I’m not the type of guy to make decisions.”

If Hudson does get traded, the White Sox don’t have an obvious choice to replace him in the rotation. The same issue would apply is a starter is injured. It would seem to suggest that a starting pitcher would be the better option at the deadline.

Williams was asked if he had the required depth to make a deal that required an existing player from the 25-man roster to be traded.

“Some places yes and some places no,” he said. “There’s been a lot that’s been talked about some guys that may be moved and I have no intention of moving them. Most of what comes out is coming out from other teams. When names are mentioned, it’s because teams desire your players and that’s always a good thing.”

OAKLAND, Calif. – Things actually got better in the standings since the last time the White Sox were home, but on the field there seems to be an entirely different outlook.

That aura of invincibility the White Sox had when they started the second half and promptly beat the Twins to open the just-completed 10-game road trip is long gone now.

After the July 15 victory in Minnesota, the White Sox had lost just five times in their past 31 games and seemed poised to put some real distance between themselves and their division rivals.

Fast forward to Sunday when the White Sox lost 6-4 to the Oakland A’s, giving them six defeats on the trip alone. They were 3-for-3 in the series openers, but not much went right after that.

Despite it all, the White Sox will kick off the home portion of the second half with the same one-game lead in the American League Central that they built when they beat the Twins on July 15. That is where the team would rather place its focus.

“If you look around there was really one game where we didn’t have a chance and that was [Saturday],” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “Today we came back and put the game back in position to be a close game. I’m not excited or happy about [the trip]. I thought we would play better, but in the meanwhile it was a long road trip. Hopefully we’ll play better than we did on this road trip.”

There are some glaring weaknesses now, though, and some embarrassing moments that wouldn’t have seemed likely when the team was rolling.

Among the things the White Sox would prefer to forget:

A defeat in Minnesota on July 16 when the White Sox committed four errors.

Freddy Garcia’s 1 1/3-inning start Saturday, a career low, when he gave up more runs (five) than recorded outs (four).

Closer Bobby Jenks coughing up not one, but two leads in a span of four days.

Reliever Erick Threets’ wild pickoff throw in the sixth inning Sunday that allowed Oakland’s Coco Crisp to score all the way from first base.

As for the causes of concern with the way the White Sox are playing:

After batting .357 (15-for-42) over the first 10 games of July, Juan Pierre was batting .138 (4-for-33) over the next eight, although he delivered an RBI single in the seventh inning Sunday.

Despite winning one game in his three starts, Daniel Hudson hasn’t looked like the answer for an injured Jake Peavy. Hudson has 11 walks in his three outings since replacing Peavy in the rotation, including four more Sunday.

Trying to show that his team doesn’t need the left-handed bat they continue to pursue as the non-waiver trade deadline approaches, Mark Kotsay didn’t make a case for himself by going 2-for-23 over his last six games.

[+] Enlarge
Juliann Tallino/US PresswireWhite Sox closer Bobby Jenks blew two leads in four games on the west coast trip.

Jenks finally got some tune-up action Sunday with a scoreless inning, but still hasn’t pitched in a save situation since Wednesday, not that the White Sox had one at Oakland.

Jenks came on in the eighth inning with the White Sox down by two runs and said he treated the outing as if it was a save situation. He gave up a one-out single to Matt Carson, who stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball, but left the runner stranded.

“When I go out there I know what my job is and I know what I need to do,” Jenks said. “I’m human. There will be days when it’s not there and the results aren’t going to be there, but for the most part I have always done my job and I’ve done it well.”

When Guillen tried a similar tactic earlier this season of removing Jenks from save situations, it lasted just one outing before the big right-hander was back in his old role. Sunday’s outing might have been enough for Guillen to give back Jenks’ old job.

“That’s what I want to see from him,” Guillen said. “He got to understand our point, what we want from him. Hopefully he keeps throwing the ball like he did [Sunday]. The last two outings you couldn’t hide. He got killed. When I see him talk about Mariano [Rivera] blew two games, yeah, but I never remember Mariano give up seven runs in two innings. We’re not crazy what we’re doing here. We know what we’re doing. If Bobby keeps throwing the ball like he did [Sunday] he’ll be back to his role.”

BY THE NUMBERS

15: At-bats without a hit for Pierre before he delivered an RBI single in the seventh inning Sunday in the middle of a rally that fell short. Alexei Ramirez emerged from a 0-for-12 slide delivering two hits. Ramirez is still batting .337 (34-for-101) over his last 28 games.

QUOTE

“I think a little more is being made of it than it needs to be. Obviously, everybody is going to be talking about it because it’s coming up. But it’s just one of those things that you have to play through and whatever happens, happens. I have no control over it besides throwing strikes. That’s the only thing I have control of in this game is throwing the ball over the plate and I couldn’t do it [Sunday].” --Hudson, on pitching in the major leagues while his name is being included in trade talk.


LOOK AHEAD

John Danks (10-7, 3.37) will be on the mound Monday night as the White Sox gladly return home from a tough 10-game trip to open the second half. It won’t be easy, though, as Danks will oppose the Seattle Mariners’ Felix Hernandez (7-6, 2.75). The White Sox faced Hernandez on July 21 at Seattle and managed just two hits in eight innings.

The White Sox are 27-19 at home, compared to 26-25 on the road. Their last home game was over two weeks ago when they scored 15 runs in a victory over the Royals on July 11 and were on the tail end of a nine-game win streak.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said he feels no pity for the division-rival Detroit Tigers, who placed two more players on the disabled list Sunday.

Magglio Ordonez (broken ankle) and Carlos Guillen (right calf strain) both went on the DL less than a week after Brandon Inge (broken bone in his left hand) did.

Read the full story.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- As the White Sox wait for the price to fall on a proven left-handed power hitter, Jim Thome continues to do his thing in Minnesota.

It was Ozzie Guillen’s call this winter, of course, to part ways with not only a fan favorite, but a favorite of the players in the clubhouse. Thome is having a decent season with the Twins, although perhaps below expectations, batting .262 with 11 home runs and 30 RBIs.

Asked if he had any regret over the decision to say goodbye to the exact same type of player the team is trying to land now, Guillen wasn’t about to look back.

“I think we are where we are [in first place] because we want to be this way,” Guillen said. “And I say ‘we,’ because everyone in the organization was in the same boat, pulling the same rope. But when I made that decision about Jim, it was just because one reason. I love Jim Thome, and all you guys know, he knows, his wife, the players, everyone knows how much we love him.”

That “one reason” Guillen is talking about was a desire to cut down on strikeouts, improve on-base percentage, be more durable and be more active on the bases. Juan Pierre became the new left-handed hitting outfielder epitomizing Guillen’s new agenda.

But Pierre’s .320 on-base percentage is lower than Thome’s .396 mark, although Pierre has 376 at-bats, compared to Thome’s 168. Pierre also has an American League-leading 35 stolen bases, although he has struggled of late with four hits in 33 at-bats before Sunday.

Another of the team’s new outfielders, Andruw Jones, has struggled with strikeouts, collecting one every four at-bats. But at least he brings the defensive element that Thome could no longer offer.

Ultimately, it isn’t as if there is a clear-cut argument to make that the White Sox are so much better off without Thome than they would have been with him. Except now, teams are trying to pry away Gordon Beckham, Daniel Hudson and even John Danks or Gavin Floyd in return for that left-handed swinger the White Sox covet.

Is that really a better situation to be in?

“If I have to wear this the rest of my life because Jimmy is a fan favorite, player favorite, manager favorite, owner favorite … I mean everyone loves Jim Thome in this organization,” Guillen said. “I think Jim Thome got more respect, people talked about him more than Frank Thomas, that’s how much people love him here. That’s pretty good company.

“In the meanwhile, even when we were struggling I continued to keep my head up and say, ‘I think we did the right thing,’ or ‘I did the right thing,’ if they want to put it that way. I don’t regret it at all, no.

“… It’s easy for us to make the lineup, keep the guys fresh, win different ways. A lot of people say, ‘Well, you guys aren’t going to go anywhere because you can’t hit the home run.’ Well, in seven years I’ve been managing this ballclub we’ve had a lot of guys that hit home runs, and we finished third a lot of times, too.”

And for the record, the White Sox were fourth in the American League in home runs with 106 before their road-trip finale at Oakland.

Riding the clutch

There is one thing Carlos Quentin’s recent nagging injuries haven’t been able to derail: his ability to hit in the clutch. Since June 1, Quentin is second in baseball posting a .457 batting average with runners in scoring position.

Quentin is just one in a number of White Sox players that have delivered when it counts, just maybe not as much as necessary on the 10-game road trip to open the second half. The White Sox are hitting .320 ast a team with runners in scoring position over the 39 games before Sunday.

The only hitter in baseball who is doing better than Quentin since June 1 is the Twins’ Delmon Young, hitting a whopping .551 in those situations. The White Sox saw Young’s ability to come through earlier in the road trip when his RBI single tied a June 18 game at Minnesota and the Twins won it on Alex Rios’ throwing error on the same play.

OAKLAND, Calif. – The White Sox put to rest one of the hottest runs in franchise history Saturday with a humbling 10-2 defeat to the Athletics.

It isn’t so much that that the stretch of blistering play comes to an end now because the White Sox have dropped five of nine games on their second-half opening, 10-game road trip, although it certainly would be a legitimate reason.

No, the team’s run of stellar play now has a period at the end of it because for the first time in well over a month the White Sox played in a game that wasn’t competitive. There was no strategy for a comeback and the white flag was raised when manager Ozzie Guillen started substituting liberally in the seventh inning.

Not since June 8 against the Cleveland Indians have the White Sox played a game where they didn’t have a chance by the late innings. Since that date, the White Sox have lost just 10 times, including Saturday.

Only twice did they lose by more than two runs in that stretch and the only other time they did, aside from Saturday, was a 7-4 defeat July 16 at Minnesota when they had the bases loaded in the ninth inning with Paul Konerko at the plate.

“When you play baseball it’s going to happen,” said Juan Pierre, who was 0-for-4. “Hopefully you stay hot as long as you can. But the most important thing is to try and win series. We’re in position to do that [Sunday] and if we do that it will be a decent road trip. It won’t be like what we hoped for but at this point you can’t get too high and you can’t get too low.

“It would be nice to win the rest of the games all year long but the chances of that happening are slim. You have to have amnesia when it’s good and bad. That’s what makes this game so tough.”

The White Sox’s 29-10 record since June 8 is still the best in baseball over that stretch so it isn’t as if they are sliding into the abyss. It was just a rare summer day when the pitching and hitting were out to lunch at the same time.

Freddy Garcia was horrible and it isn’t likely that if Omar Vizquel did get to that ball he lost in the sun in the opening inning it would have made much of a difference. The A’s scored three runs in the first inning and three more in the second as Garcia recorded just four outs before he was removed.

“I started with the first guy, walk, so I started with the wrong foot,” Garcia said. “I didn’t really have it. Normally, I have a good changeup, but today … I couldn’t make the pitch I needed. I threw like, what, 50 pitches in the first inning? After that it was pretty much … I couldn’t get anybody out after that.”

The 1 1/3-inning outing, when he gave up five runs on six hits and three walks, was the shortest of Garcia’s career. It put an end to his six-game win streak, his longest since putting together a seven-game streak early in the 2006 season. It was also the end of Garcia’s five-game road win streak.

Thinking he could still salvage the game, Guillen went to the bullpen early. It didn’t work and now the relievers will be short-staffed with rookie Daniel Hudson on the mound in Sunday’s series finale.

Tony Pena came on to give up four runs on four hits with four walks in 3 2/3 innings. Left-hander Erick Threets continues to prove himself, pitching two scoreless innings. He now has six scoreless outings since joining the team in late June.

“We haven’t had many games like that,” Guillen said. “Even when we struggled, we didn’t have many games get away like that. One thing about it, no matter how you lose 1-0, 20-1, you still lose. Hopefully we bounce back, pitch better and score some runs.”

BY THE NUMBERS

30: Number of defeats for the White Sox this season when scoring three runs or less. They have won eight such games. When allowing four runs or more, the White Sox are 16-32.

QUOTE

“The umpire was pretty tight man. I watched the video and felt like I threw some pretty good pitches. For me, I live in the corners. I don’t throw hard. I can’t just throw in the middle. If I don’t have the corners I get [expletive], and that’s what happened. It’s one thing if you can throw a fastball away, but if I don’t have the corners, I have to live with that, man.” – Freddy Garcia, on the strike zone from home-plate umpire Laz Diaz on Saturday.

LOOK AHEAD

Hudson (1-0, 5.06 ERA) will make his third start of the season and just the fifth of his career when he faces Oakland. He has never started against the A’s but does have an appearance against them, giving up two earned runs and five hits over a 2 1/3-inning relief appearance in September of last season. He is coming off a victory at Seattle when he gave up one earned run over 6 2/3 innings.

Hudson will be opposed by Oakland’s Dallas Braden (4-7, 3.74) who is making his second start since coming off the disabled list because of elbow tendinitis. Braden pitched a perfect game May 9 against the Tampa Bay Rays.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- All those trade rumors that carry his name? Daniel Hudson has a way of dealing with that.

The reality that he is filling the shoes of a former Cy Young Award winner in the White Sox’s rotation? He has been offered a way of coping with that too.

The thought that Sunday’s start at Oakland is key in showing that he deserves to stick around? That one isn’t so easy to avoid.

Read the entire story.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- White Sox general manager Ken Williams keeps working the phones as the trade deadline approaches, all while revealing little about the process.

Leave it to manager Ozzie Guillen to offer a little insight.

Read the entire story.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- On the one-year anniversary of his perfect game, Mark Buehrle did something even harder for him to accomplish.

Buehrle won in Oakland for the first time in his career, pitching a complete-game 5-1 victory against the team that has given him fits over 10 previous starts. It improved the left-hander’s overall record to 4-12 against the A’s.

It was such a momentous occasion that when Buehrle and catcher A.J. Pierzynski met in front of the mound after the last out, Buehrle reached out to shake hands while Pierzynski went in for a hug. Buehrle would have none of it.

“With two outs he was shaking his hands [from behind home plate],” Buehrle said of his catcher, with the implication being that Buehrle was getting nervous on the cusp of a complete game. “I said ‘It’s my second one in a row.’ He forgot about the last one [in Minnesota]. That’s why he was being a smart [aleck].”

Wednesday’s defeat might not have looked good, but the players were as loose as ever two days later.

Best of all for the White Sox, there was no need for a closer, or any reliever for that matter, when Buehrle was so efficient and the offense was tacking on some late-inning insurance runs. Buehrle needed 101 pitches to shut down the A’s.

With closer Bobby Jenks struggling and manager Ozzie Guillen saying he would go to somebody else the next time the game is on the line, a backup plan wasn’t needed.

What Friday’s victory showed was that the White Sox haven’t been affected by their recent heartbreaking defeats. The latest of those came Wednesday in a 2-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners when Jenks failed to hold a 1-0 lead in the 11th inning.

Thursday’s off day could have left the White Sox replaying the defeat over and over again in their heads. But where the Bay Area has meant bad things for White Sox teams in the past, it was the perfect venue for the day off as some members of the traveling party went fishing on the Pacific Ocean, while another group that included Buehrle went to wine country in Napa.

“I think our thing is not worry about what you did yesterday,” Guillen said. “Today is a new game. We don’t take anything for granted. Most of the time when you lose a game like that you have a tendency to say, ‘What’s going on?’ This team is great.

“When you lose a game like that, then have a day off and Buehrle’s pitching, you feel pretty good.”

On Sunday at Minnesota, Jenks was charged with four runs in the ninth inning as the Twins rallied for a victory. In that case, the White Sox came right back and beat the Mariners in consecutive games.

Assuming the White Sox get though the A’s in fine fashion this weekend, they will have to do something about this perception that it’s a weak strength of schedule that is propping up the team in the standings.

The White Sox are a major-league best 29-9 since June 9 and, sure, some of those victories came against the weaklings of both leagues, but there are also triumphs over the Texas Rangers, the crosstown Cubs and a sweep over the Atlanta Braves, who opened play Friday with the best record in the National League.

After the two games at Oakland this weekend, the White Sox get Seattle and Oakland again at home. Then it’s five against the Tigers at Detroit and six against the Twins in a nine-day stretch in the middle of August when the White Sox can show what kind of team they truly have.

BY THE NUMBERS

3: Times Buehrle has pitched back-to back complete games after accomplishing the feat Friday. He went the distance in his previous start last Saturday at Minnesota. He also did it in August of 2001 and in September of 2004. It was the 26th complete game of his career.

QUOTE

“We used Bobby Jenks three out of four games [before Friday]. I forgot about that. I think that’s the reason we try to keep the guys fresh. I talked to Buehrle after the long [seventh] inning and he said he felt fine to come back and do what he did,” Guillen, on Buehrle’s complete game giving the bullpen another day off.

LOOK AHEAD

Freddy Garcia (9-3, 4.37) will face off against the A’s on Saturday looking once again for that 10th victory that eluded him in Minnesota over the weekend. He allowed three runs over six innings to the Twins and was in line to get the victory before Bobby Jenks and Sergio Santos failed to protect a three-run lead in the ninth inning. Garcia is 6-0 over his last nine starts with a 3.37 ERA.

Garcia will face off against Oakland’s Vin Mazarro (5-2, 3.50), who has allowed one run in three of his last four starts and has a 3-0 record with a 1.93 ERA over that stretch.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- It wasn't like Gordon Beckham had his head down and refused to look people in the eye earlier this year, it's just that now it's a lot easier to do.

Read the entire story.

Like a lot of Don Draper wannabes, I'm more than a little excited for the "Mad Men" season premiere this Sunday night.

Unfortunately for me, the rare man without a DVR, I'll be at a live taping of the critically panned Chicago show "Mad Fans," starring the 39,000 or so Cubs fans who pay big bucks to watch a bad team.

I'll also be missing the second episode of the reality show featuring those other "mad men," Ozzie Guillen and Kenny Williams. "The Club" will be airing its second episode this Sunday as a lead-in to a great night of television.

Read the entire column.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Make a trade if you have to, Ozzie Guillen said Friday. Just know that the manager isn't clamoring for general manager Ken Williams to make a move.

Read the entire story.