July 28, 2010... Remember that date Sox fans...

That is the date that the White Sox, for the first time all year, played like division champions. Ahhh, I can hear the criticism now: "But Poljak, Mark Buerhle was horrible! He gave up 5 runs in 2 innings! Have you lost your mind?" Anyone that knows me or has talked to me knows that I'm a few beers light of a case, but that doesn't change the fact that the Sox acted like a 1st place team in coming back to beat the Mariners Wednesday night. And yes, I know the Mariners are bad but you still need to come back and beat the bad teams, too.
Sure, Buerhle didn't have his best stuff, giving up 5 runs and 6 hits over his first 1 2/3 innings. Then he 'cinched it up and hunkered down' as Hawk would say, giving up just 3 hits and 0 runs over his final 3 1/3 innings. Then the White Sox showed just how dangerous of a team they can be with mediocre starting pitching and a solid offensive showing. Ozzie marched out Santos, Thorton, Putz and Jenks for innings 6-9 where they gave up a collective 2 hits (both by Thorton) and recorded 5 punch outs (Bobby struck out the side in the 9th). They allowed the bats to do work against the Mariners' pitchers by first showing off their power (3 dingers) and then in the 7th manufacturing the go-ahead run with the old "get 'em on, get 'em over, get 'em in" adage.
This game is significant to the Sox and is telling of the type of team they have on a few different levels.
First, the players knew they had to win in order to stay in 1st place by themselves. The Twins had already beaten the Royals earlier in the day and would have moved into a tie for first with a White Sox loss. They didn't let the pressure of losing control of the division lead get to them or force them to try to do too much.
Second, They battled the entire game and didn't let themselves think they were defeated because they went down 5-1 so early in the game. Instead, they fought and shown a kind of resiliency that you need to make the playoffs.
What it also did was prove how important it is for the Sox to have Bobby Jenks as their closer. The rest of the pen knows exactly what to do when they get in the game; get the ball to Bobby in the 9th. Santos is a future big league closer and Putz has proved in the past that he is more than capable of excelling at closing out games (he saved over 70 games in back-to-back seasons with the Blue Jays). Thorton has the easiest 98 mph fastball in the game and is one of the premier set-up men in baseball. Throw in a great season from Tony Pena and a nice rookie showing from Threets and the Sox have themselves one of the best bullpens around... I purposely left Linebrink off the list of positives because, well, he's bad.
Only Kenny knows what move he is going to make before Saturday's trade deadline. He wants power from the left side... most Sox fans just don't want to see Mark Kotsay every game. And no one could reasonably say they wouldn't want to see Adam Dunn in the middle of the lineup. In fact, if someone does say they don't want Dunn then you have my permission to slap them across the face and revoke their baseball talking privileges.
An established fifth stater would ease the agony of watching Daniel Hudson toe the rubber every 5 days, and even though I just gushed over how good the bullpen is, you could never have too many good arms for the back end of games.
But I'm not writing this to speculate on what Kenny is going to do. No. This is to let you know that the Sox have turned another corner this season. The went on the improbable winning streak to get back in the race and now they are showing a willingness and determination to do whatever it takes to win games. Everybody on the team knows they are capable of accomplishing something special this year. All season they've said the right things... even when it was going really bad for them. Now they have to keep their focus heading into the hottest and toughest part of their schedule. But if Wednesday, July 28th has proved anything it's that the Sox will not crumble under the pressure and will not stop fighting until the 27th out is made.