Three things came into focus yesterday that should put a smile on any White Sox fan’s face.

1.) The truth finally comes out. For nearly 7 years now, White Sox fans have had to put up with retorts along the lines of “Well at least our fans don’t charge the field shirtless and beat up on old, defenseless first base coaches while hopped on meth.” Both Ligue boys only had to put up 30 months under probation, while Sox fans had to endure the shame of having these two crap bags as supposed “fans.”

Douche Bag Extraordinaire

The littlest Ligue finally showed his true colors on his MySpace page, letting slip what we should’ve guessed all along. He’s a Detroit Tigers fan, proudly sporting the Tigers’ script ‘D’ chain, and sent by General Manager Dave Dombrowski, on that fateful night seven years ago to sully the good name of the White Sox. This was obviously a nefarious plan to exact revenge on Hawk Harrelson and the organization, which fired Dombrowski from his position as assistant general manager during Harrelson’s one year as General Manager in 1986.

The scariest thing in this entire development is the fact that the youngest Ligue will be a father soon himself according to all MySpace accounts.  Simply scary.

2.) The Tigers are tiring.

Everyone knows that the Detroit Tigers have solid starting pitching. With a starting rotation that includes a rejuvenated Justin Verlander, Armando Galarraga (who’s shown he can put a solid season together), Edwin Jackson, and rookie Rick Porcello, the Tigers are positioned to be competitive in most games.

Looking over shoulder for Dusty Baker

Fortunately, the Tigers are taking no chances with Rick Porcello’s young arm. He’s currently at 87 innings pitched, with a career high of 125 innings pitched last year in the minors.  While I certainly laud the Tigers for protecting their young prospect’s arm, and they certainly can manage it with the occasional spot start from another rookie/minor league call-up, it will come back to bite their own tails.

With the Tigers’ eyes on pitch counts every fifth start, and the occasional bad start from the rest of the starters thrown into the mix, the Detroit bullpen will be pressured to step up and make up for the innings lost to the Porcello Preservation Plan. While the pen is full of potential, recent years have shown the relief arms to be increasingly fragile and unreliable. Flamethrower Joel Zumaya is currently on the DL with right shoulder soreness, and the rest of the bullpen has blown the most saves in the league this year, given up the third most walks, and has the tenth best bullpen ERA in the American League.

Last night Bobby Seay demonstrated this weakness, wasting a quality start by Armando Galarraga (7.1IP ) giving up a 2-run homer to Russell Branyan after inheriting one baserunner from Galarraga. After absorbing this tough loss, the Tigers’ pen will be called upon often as rookie Luke French pitches on Thursday and Rick Porcello will start in the first game of the doubleheader with the Sox on Friday.

Aside from the fragility of the Tiger bullpen, the rest of their team is slumping too. Brandon Inge is suffering from tendonitis in both knees (the Home Run Contest will not only screw up your swing, but also your joints). In the entire Tiger lineup only Miguel Cabrera has a batting average above .300.

All this has added up to the Tigers going 6-9 since July 1st and fans asking when hockey season starts again.

3.) The Sox have stayed hot.

In contrast with the Tigers, the Sox have gone 11-7 since July 1st and have now won 21 out of their last 32 games after yesterday’s exciting 4-3 victory against the Rays. They are now only one game behind the Tigers for the division lead.

I was at last night’s game in roughly the seats where the aforementioned Ligues would’ve stormed the field. I got some good natured heckling in of George Hendrick, the Rays’ first base coach and outfield instructor (also credited as the first MLB player to wear his pant legs all the way down to his shoes).  I thanked him, among other things, for his fielding instruction work with BJ Upton, who looked utterly lost when he was crossed up on Alexei Ramirez’s triple over his head in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Cuban Missile

Blame it on the Von Wafer mohawk.

Upton’s blunder allowed the tying runs in Gordon Beckham and Scott Podsednik to score.

Jermaine Dye pounced on the opportunity, knocking in Ramirez for the go-ahead run. Matt Thornton then came in to lock down the Rays for the final two innings, earning his first save of the season.

While the established players came through at the opportune moments last night, it was the work of two rookies that give hope that the White Sox will not face a long rebuilding period when Paulie, Jim, AJ, and Jermaine finally decide to hang them up.

Carlos Torres, called up from Triple-A Charlotte a day earlier, ably replaced John Danks and his blistered finger on Wednesday night. Torres stayed ahead of hitters with a mix of fastballs and breaking pitches thrown early in counts for strikes. While the end stat line may not be awe inspiring (6 IP, 3 ER, 3 K’s, 3 BB’s) Torres took the game into the seventh inning, pitched out of a few jams, and generally kept the Rays from getting to the Sox bullpen earlier. That’s all the Sox could really hope for from Torres. He stepped up and provided just that, keeping the Sox in the ballgame, while also saving the bullpen for a stretch of 22 games in 23 days.

The other rookie of note in last night’s game was Gordon Beckham. Last night, I predicted to a friend that Beckham’s jersey will become in the next year as popular as Joe Crede’s was. I know it’s blasphemous, but this kid is something special. After his slow start (1-for-13, I believe) he has really turned it on as of late. Prior to last night’s game, Beckham’s batting average sat at .304. This coincides with a resurgence of other Sox bats with a majority of the lineup hovering around .300. Gordon Beckham has teamed with Scott Podsednik to create an exciting bridge from the bottom of the lineup to the top in late game situations. It always seems as if Beckham is managing to get on base in some shape or form setting the table for the big hitters or merely prolonging an inning, wearing down a reliever.

He did just that last night drawing a walk in the seventh, advancing on an infield hit from Scott Podsednik and then coming around to score on the Ramirez triple. Over the last 5 games, Gordon Beckham has batted .529 in 17 at bats, with a .600 OBP and .706 SLG %. His defense has also come along, again making a tough over the shoulder catch in foul territory in the middle innings, and throwing out several of the speedy Rays runners with ease.

Sox fans have these reasons to be excited for the remainder of the second half of the season and should have an exciting product out on the field each and every night. If there are any Sox fans who read this blog (this blog has come a long way from Stormin Norman’s steadfast refusal to cover anything Sox-related outside of Ozzie blowups) I’d encourage them to come out and support the team if you can, as there are still plenty of quality seats available at most of these games. The more butts in the seats = the more freedom Kenny Williams has to do what he does best.

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Tags: Alexei Ramirez, Armando Galarraga, Bobby Seay, Carlos Torres, Dave Dombrowski, Edwin Jackson, George Hendrick, Gordon Beckham, Hawk Harrelson, Jermaine Dye, Joel Zumaya, Justin Verlander, Rick Procello, Scott Podsednik, William Ligue Jr.