Tonight’s man of the hour!

What happened tonight? Well, the Twins did the Sox a favor and beat the Tigers. Magic (or Tragic depending on your view) number remains at five games. The Sox still are pretty abysmal with RISP scoring, but they did eek out just enough runs tonight to get a win and cut the lead the Tigers have to just one game. Given how this season has gone, it would be so Tigers and Sox to end up tied in a couple of days.

Mr. Consistently Inconsistent wasn’t horrible tonight. He also wasn’t fantastic either, but his performance was enough. Jesse Crain came in to relieve him and was pretty good himself. Not the Jesse of old that made people want to cut him, which is good as well. Matt Thornton, Donnie Veal and Addison Reed came in to finish the job for a White Sox winner.

Offensive hero? Alex Rios who hit the go-ahead run in the bottom of the fourth inning. It was Rios’s 25th home run of the season. That home run and RBI was a new career high in both categories for him. The Sox did plate another run in the sixth inning when Rios doubled and then eventually was brought home on an Alexei Ramirez  single after Rios moved to third on a fly ball hit by AJ Pierzynski.

Tomorrow afternoon, Chris Sale will square off against Matt Moore. The Rays had their winning streak halted tonight at eight games. They too are still trying to get in the playoffs, but each day passing, it gets dimmer that they will have a seat at the post season table.

For more on the Rays, be sure to visit Cowbell Clankers