Morning Wood

Chicago White Sox 4 Cleveland Indians 1

And the White Sox just keep on rolling. The Sox won their sixth straight last night, a perfect record since the lineup shuffle, and did it against a man that had never lost at The Cell. Carlos Quentin got things started in the first with his American League leading 12th home run off of C.C. Sabathia, and Jim Thome followed him up with another solo shot in the 2nd inning. It's the third time Thome has gone deep off of C.C. this year, his only three hits off of him in his career.

That was all the runs the Sox would need, but Carlos Quentin got things going in the 8th with some smart base-running. On first with nobody out, Jermaine Dye singled to center, but after noticing Sizemore take his time getting to the ball, CQ never broke stride and got into third. Dye moved up to second, and after an intentional walk to Jim Thome, Pablo Ozuna singled home the next two runs.

Jose Contreras also continued to pitch like the Jose of old, going six innings and allowing only one run while striking out four and allowing only four hits. He finally looks confident again.

"You know what, I wouldn't be here if I doubted myself," Contreras said through an interpreter. "The most important thing was that I was healthy when I was going through those struggles. I wasn't worried about being able to pitch. If you doubt yourself, in life you're not going to get anywhere."

Houston Astros 4 Chicago Cubs 2

If you only saw the fourth inning of this game, you saw everything that actually mattered. After Aramis Ramirez hit a two-run blast in the top of the inning to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead, Hunter Pence followed in the bottom half with a grand slam.

Advantage Pence, game Astros.

Aside from those two swings, not much else happened in this game. Ryan Dempster had a decent night for the Cubs, outside of that fourth inning, and lasted six innings while striking out five.

"It was everything leading up to the home run that bothered me. It was just bad inning management," Dempster said of the fourth inning. "I had [Carlos] Lee at 0-2 and I had an opportunity to make a pitch and I didn't do it. One big hit killed me. I felt so good and I felt better as I went along. This was a game I felt I could have won."

AL

• Red Sox 2 Royals 1
• Tigers 12 Mariners 8
• Orioles 12 Yankees 2
• Angels 3 Blue Jays 1
• Twins 11 Rangers 4
• Rays 3 A's 2

NL

• Braves 6 Mets 1 Gm1
  
• Brewers 7 Pirates 2
• Braves 6 Mets 2 Gm2
• Phillies 1 Nats 0
• Marlins 3 DBacks 2
• Giants 6 Rockies 5
• Padres 3 Cardinals 2
• Dodgers 4 Reds 1