When the White Sox lost to the Dodgers on June 23, they were four games below .500 and six games out of first place in the American League Central.
Twenty games after baseball’s best team beat them, the Sox are four games above .500 and only 1 1/2 games behind the Tigers.
And with the shift in momentum comes a change in thinking.
“If we play like the last month, we’ll be where we want to be,” Mark Buehrle said. “It seems like stuff is clicking for us.”
The streak started with two straight victories over the Dodgers and has continued after the All-Star break with two straight over the Orioles, the latest Buehrle’s 4-3 harder-than-necessary triumph Saturday.
“Not too many people thought when we started the season that we were going to be in this situation,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “We started the season real poorly, we had a lot of guys hurt, guys weren’t performing, but now it’s feeling pretty good.
“It has a lot to do with the chemistry, a lot with belief in ourselves and a lot with having been there before. Even when we lose, we lose the right way.”
Of course, the Sox have lost only six times in those last 20 games, during which they are hitting .315 with 32 homers, including Jermaine Dye’s two-run, go-ahead shot in Saturday’s fifth inning.
And it was quite a fifth inning, with an error and six straight hits producing all four runs. It would have been more if third-base coach Jeff Cox hadn’t had two runners thrown out trying to score.
“I’ve never seen a guy get [runners] thrown out at the plate twice in less than 30 seconds,” Guillen said with a laugh. “That’s a world record.”
But the four runs were enough, thanks to Buehrle’s 7 1/3 masterful innings, Matt Thornton’s bases-loaded strikeout of Ty Wigginton in the eighth and Bobby Jenks’ 21st save, although he allowed a pair of runs and left the tying run on base.
Besides Dye, the hits in the fifth inning went to Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, A.J. Pierzynski, Chris Getz and Gordon Beckham.
After an 0-for-13 start to his big-league career, Beckham has raised his average to .296. He’s 5-for-7 since the break.
“Earlier in the season, when the fans thought I hated that kid because of the comments I was making,” Guillen said, “I was making sure I was protecting the kid.
“We didn’t know how good he was going to be. We’re strong now with him and Getz in the bottom of the lineup.”
Although he needed all four runs in the end, the hero of the day was Buehrle, who kept up an incredible run at The Cell. He is 6-1 with a 2.81 ERA in his last 11 starts at home and 14-1 with a 2.47 ERA in his last 20 starts, dating back one calendar year.
Saturday’s 32,881 fans showed their appreciation with cheers when the team’s only All-Star was taken out of the game in the eighth inning.
“I was kind of surprised,” Buehrle said. “As soon as Ozzie came out of the dugout, they started going crazy. I love pitching here, and I love how they support me.”
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dvandyck@tribune.com
