Phinally...

...interleague is over for the Sox, and ends on a high note, with a sweep of the Phillies. Sox went 11-6 in Interleague; I'm too lazy to look up the numbers but I'm quite sure that's by far their best season record since interleague began. Wells was shaky for the second start in a row; like last time he went only 5 innings giving up 10 hits. Only this time that wasn't good enough for the W, as Embree continued to pitch himself out of the majors, allowing all three batters he faced to reach base (2B, BB, E6). Wells did however, get a hit, a run, and an RBI -- that's two games this season in which Sox pitchers helped with offense, and I can't remember that happening even once before. Wells's run scored on Manny's 19th career GS, tied for 2nd most in baseball history. Former Red Soxck Rheal Cormier, happy to once again be the best French Canadian Pitcher in Baseball, got the loss, giving up 4 runs, including a 2 run HR by the Cap'n.

These are good times. Just over 2 weeks ago Sox were a mere 3 games over .500; now they're 14 over, and in 1st place in their division, 2.5 ahead of the O's (riding a 5-game losing streak) and 6.5 ahead of the Yankees (who won one from the Mets, bottom of the 9th). They're now 3rd in the AL (4th in the major leagues) in terms of both record and RPI. [Interestingly, the St. Louis Cardinals, with the best record in the NL, are 2nd in RPI, to the Washington Nationals, due to differences in strength of schedule. In a related note, White Sox are still way outperforming their Pythagorean record, winning lots of tight games...I continue to maintain they'll cool off substantially before the end of the season.]

Next up, six games at Fenway, against the Native Americans and the BJ's. Then 7 away games at Texas and Baltimore before the All-Star Break. If the Sox go just 7-6 they'll hit the ASB 15 games above .500, 5 better than at the same point in 2004.