Oh, U!

Man, Ubaldo had it going ON tonight! Great time for him to step up and be our main guy while Masterson is hurt down the stretch here. Lots of losses in the wildcard race today so Cleveland is just one game out! Down with Texas!

Ubaldo pitched 8 1/3 innings, gave up just one run (at the end of it, thanks to a reliever), only 6 hits and struck out 8. Remember when he gave up 4 home runs in each of April, May and June? He tweaked it down to 3 in July and only one in August - which helps explain how he's got the league's best ERA since the All Star break. And September? Well so far in three appearances there have been NO home runs and just two earned runs. An entirely different Ubaldo, altogether!

"An entirely different Ubaldo!"

CC Lee was called in for the remainder of the 9th, with 2 on and one out. Ubaldo didn't have a chance to go for the complete-game shutout. He also didn't have a chance to finish the game without his 2 runners scoring, as Lee gave up a single to load them up and then a sac fly for one of Ubaldo's runners to score.

But, as Tom Hamilton said, Francona is going for the playoffs, not a complete-game shutout. So they had to ditch Ubaldo just in case he was about to implode. Fair enough.

The offense was back to pummeling the Sox, which is how it should be. None of this 3-1, close game nonsense! Today it was a solid manly 8-1 with two big home runs and stuff like that.

Bourn, Swisher and Kipnis each got one hit apiece, and Bourn with 2 walks to Swisher's and Kipnis's one each. Bourn and Kipnis are both rocking 5-game hitting streaks, and Swisher is right behind them with 4 games.

Carlos Santana is rocking a NINE game hitting streak with 12 hits, 7 RBI and 8 walks in that time. Wow! Today he kicked it up a notch and got himself 3 hits in 4 at-bats, with a walk, 2 RBI and a run scored. Great time for him to be hot, for sure! And it really works out that we can use him and Gomes simultaneously, with the DH spot and Swisher being expendable at first (gee, thanks Swisher?)

Michael Brantley went 0 for 5 today, after going 0-3 last night. Pray for Mojo :(

OMG ASDRUBAL!! Four home runs in 8 games now. It's pretty amazing! Granted, he is still striking out at very inopportune times *cringe* but you know, we need runs and home runs are runs. Tonight they were 2 runs!

Since we were up 7 runs at the time, they brought in Jose Ramirez to bat for Asdrubal in the 9th. No doubt to see what that kid can do. Well, he can hit a triple! Dude is so fast. I wish they put up a video of it so I can see how fast he is, but no. Lucky for me I saw it in person on Monday but I could watch it all day!

Giambi and Raburn platooning as DH In the 7-spot. Nice move! Giambi had a walk then came in to score. He also had a double until Avisail Garcia leaped up and caught it!

Raburn got another RBI today. Shattered his hitting streak, going 0 for 1, but his RBI streak is still alive. How about that?

15 RBI in 8 games!!

Love that Raburn!

How lucky were we to see Giambi, Raburn and Gomes in one game? So lucky! Gomes went 1 for 4 with a walk, and came in to score. Twelve hits in his last 10 games!

I told you we'd see Lonnie today! Nice platooning with Aviles - Aviles seems to be out of steam, so put in the Chiz Kid and he gives you a 3-run homer and goes 2 for 4!! Now, we just need to perfect our timing of Aviles and Chisenhall for the rest of September. Hopefully Francona is already on it.

One more delicious game against these hapless ChiSox. We've beaten them 11 times in a row and now 14 times this season. If we lose tomorrow it'll just be like...come on!

It's ZMac versus LHP 2.90. Hmm...well, let's hope the bullpen is on their A-game tomorrow, and that everyone available to us bats. We're going to need a lot of help!

No Radio Chatter tonight. I listened to the game but I was in the middle of a big bike race!