Series Preview: Boston @ at White Sox

Red Sox (76-51) at White Sox (56-70)
4 Game Series at Celluar Field

Standings: BOS up 5 in AL East, CHI -14 GB in AL Central

Season Series: Bos leads, 3-1

Probable Pitching Matchups:
GM1 Thu 810 Beckett (15-5, 3.15) vs. Danks (6-11, 5.30)
GM2 Fri 810 Schilling (7-5, 4.25) vs. Garland (8-9, 4.84)
GM3 Sat 355 Wakefield (15-10, 4.35) vs. Buhrle (9-8, 3.42)
GM4 Sun 210 TBD vs. Vazquez (11-6, 3.66)

Keep an Eye On: Jermaine Dye .245/24/63--ever since the Chisox decided to hold onto the right fielder at the trade deadline rather than deal him to Boston, the slumping slugger has come out of his funk. Dye is batting .305 (22-72) since July 31st, with 5 homers, 5 doubles, 11 RBIs and 19 runs scored in 20 games.

Preview
The two pairs of baseball Sox go at each other in a series that always seems to be contentious & hardfought no matter the records.

In this case no matter that the Pale Hose are one of the biggest disappointments in the game, sharing the Central cellar with the Royals and possessing one of the worst records in the majors.

If you recall it was just two short years ago that Ozzie Guillen's hyped-up gang of overachievers rolled the Bosox in the ALDS en route to winning its first title since 1917, snapping a curse even longer than Boston's.

Now the club is mired in mediocrity, owners of an anemic offense (last in AL in runs & avg.) and pathetic pitching staff (ERA & BAA 2nd from last), but despite spinning its wheels in the cutthroat division, GM Kenny Williams decided to stand pat at the deadline, re-signing potential big free agent Mark Buhrle and attempting to do the same with Jermaine Dye.

So while the Chisox march in place this season the Bosox march to the division crown plows onward, with every series seeming like more & more of a grind and every member of the team, front office, and Nation just praying for the end of the season to get here already.

The teams hooked up a month ago at Fenway and after Chicago took the opener Boston ripped off three straight wins by a combined score of 21-10; that would be evidence of the pathetic pitching staff I mentioned.

After that beatdown they won 5 of 6 games, but since then it's been U-G-L-Y, with the club dropping 10 of its last 13 games including an abysmal 8-game skid.

The lone bright spot in this wretched season for Chicago has been the remarkable performance of close Bobby Jenks. The underrated righty ranks 2nd in the league in saves with 35 (on a team that has won just 56 games!), but it was his recent stretch of unhittableness (?) that brought him & his club national attention.

Jenks had retired a ML record-tying 41 consecutive batters going into Tuesday's contest against the Royals, but speedster Joey Gathright pushed a single through the infield to snap the streak, and Jenks had to settle for sharing the mark with Jim Barr.

Now the White Sox can just run out the string and start making travel plans for early
October. But you can bet there's nothing Ozzie would love more than to win this series against the best team in baseball, i.e. the better Sox.

The way the pitching match ups are looking this series could end in a tie, but Boston has the obvious advantage in Game 1, with the best pitcher in the game going up against the mess that is John Danks, who with a 4-game losing streak and 27 hits including 6 home runs allowed in his last 20 innings, would be confused with Bobby Jenks in name only.

The other three games could go either way, and I'll break them down as the series continues.

One interesting note: Boston sent pitcher Jon Lester back to AA Portland, so he will not be starting the fourth game as previously planned. Julian Tavarez will get the call in that contest. Lefty specialist Javier Lopez was recalled to help with the struggling bullpen, and the Globe reports that Lester will miss one start and be brought back up on Sept. 2nd.

Other notes: The Sox signed veteran SS Royce Clayton to a minor league contract. Clayton played with Toronto this season, but fell out of favor with the organization, batting .254 in 69 games. With Dustin Pedroia out of tonight's game after getting plunked on the elbow last night, this move has postseason infield insurance written all over it.

Let's hope Josh Beckett goes out there tonight and shows this piddling team who's the boss, and not fall victim to another horror show like last night.