After winning the first two games in three straight series (against the Twins, Pirates, and Angels) before dropping the finale, the Sox have finally closed the deal. Their weekend series against the Royals ended in a sweep. Granted, I’ll take a two-of-three series win almost every time, but nothing beats the ol’ sweep-er-oo. It’s fun to see the good guys finally pull one off.

The Sox worked their way to a win in Saturday's game, while paying tribute to the Negro Leagues with their retro uniforms.

They exploded into the opener friday night, drilling the Royals 11-2. Clayton Richard gave up only two runs over his seven innings, lowering his ERA to a nice 3.38. More starts like that will leave no need for Jake Peavy, Roy Oswalt, Matt Cain, or any other starters the Sox are rumored to have been chasing. The key to the offense in this game was pressure on the starting pitcher. Four times in this game the Sox went first-to-third, keeping the pitcher in an uncomfortable situation. Even more importantly the Pale Hose were able to drive the runners in, which in the end is all that counts.

The Saturday game once again found the Sox doing the little things necessary to win games. They got solid pitching from starter Mark Buehrle (3 ER in 7 1/3 IP, no walks) and 1 2/3 shutout innings from the bullpen. With the game tied 3-3 in the top of the ninth Chris Getz singled, followed by a walk from Josh Fields. Re-tread outfielder Scott Podsednik then drove in Getz as the go-ahead run and Alexei Ramirez (now hitting .253) drove an insurance run in; 5-3 Sox. It was the kind of win you have to get if you want to win divisions.

One again, the Sox had taken the first two games of a series. And once again, they were set up for everything to go horribly wrong in the finale. After all, early Cy Young Award favorite Zack Greinke was taking the mound, along with his 0.84 ERA, for The Boys in Blue. He had already beaten the Sox twice in the early goings this year, and there was no reason to think he wouldn’t continue to pile on. However the Sox roughed him up for four runs (three earned) over his seven innings and Sox starter John Danks, although struggling again, kept the good guys in it. The bullpen again pitched lights-out to the tune of one hit over 3 and 2/3 innings, and the offense was able to score three more runs off the Royals bullpen, winning 7-4.

The Sox finished May 13-15. Not a great number, but they went 9-6 in the last half to keep it respectable. We now open an 11 game homestand, and they need to play well to cover some ground. The Sox find themselves in second place after sweeping the Royals, and are looking up at Detroit by four games behind. The Sox need to play really well over these eleven games and jump Detroit, who they play in the final four games of the homestand.