But Konerko is no Tom Brady, and that's a good thing as far as the South Siders were concerned.

MRI results on Wednesday morning confirmed the optimism that the club had late Tuesday night, as their team captain's right knee injury is simply being called a mild sprain of the medial collateral ligament.

How quickly he returns to the field remains to be seen.

"I have no idea when I'll get back in," Konerko said. "If this happened in April or May, you might wait until there was no pain. But I'll just wait until it can function. And if there's some pain that's fine. It's that time of year when you have to get back in there.

"We're fighting for a spot in the playoffs. But it's got to be able to function. When I hit, I've got to be able to move my back knee, and that's a move that would hurt right now. You have to be violent with it, you have to move as hard as you can when you do that. As soon as I can do that, even if there is some pain, we'll go get 'em. Because, you know, there's only a couple weeks left. And if you get in, it'll be worth it. And if you don't, you have four months to rest."

According to Konerko, the immediate plan is more ice and heat Thursday afternoon, and then the motion of the knee will be tested. If he passes that test, best-case scenario is a weekend return against Detroit. Otherwise, his hope is to return sometime on the upcoming 10-game road trip.

"I haven't even tested it in any capacity yet, other than putting it in hot water or putting ice on it and not really twisting or turning it," Konerko said. "I learned on the last injury not to make predictions because if you're wrong it looks bad and looks like a setback when it's normal. So when I'm in uniform playing, that's when I can play."

WHITE SOX 6, BLUE JAYS 5: Batting in of the No. 2 hole of the lineup for the first time since May 13, A.J. Pierzynski went 2-for-4 with three RBI. Ozzie Guillen's new-look speedy lineup also put pressure on Roy Halladay on the basepaths, with Dewayne Wise forcing a bad throw in the first and Jerry Owens legging out an infield single.

As for the pitching, whenever the Sox need a big performance, Mark Buehrle seems to answer the bell. Wednesday was no different, with the southpaw putting in 7 1/3 innings of work in the win, allowing just one run in that span.