--3B Joe Crede received treatment prior to Wednesday's game, after he had to come out of Tuesday's loss when his back problems once again flaring up. Crede had season-ending surgery on the back in June 2007, and all seemed well the first half of the season. But Crede spent last month on the 15-day disabled list with back stiffness, and now with this latest episode, no wonder manager Ozzie Guillen was reiterating Wednesday that he can no longer count on Crede. "I cannot ask him every day, 'How do you feel?'" Guillen said. "I can't deal with that. I'm dealing with so many different things. When he tells me he can play, he can be in the lineup. But how long am I going to put him there? That's my point. This isn't Instructional League. This is not a winter league. If our situation was different, then why not? Every day, we have to win. With Joe in the lineup, there's no doubt we have a better lineup." So for now Guillen is sticking with Juan Uribe at third base.
--OFs Carlos Quentin (right forearm) and Ken Griffey Jr. (back) remained on the shelf Wednesday, but manager Ozzie Guillen received good reports on both, enough so that he felt with Thursday an off day, they both could be back for the series against the Angels that starts Friday. Quentin said his forearm was feeling better each day, and Griffey was feeling good about his back after further treatment before the series finale with Cleveland. --RHP Octavio Dotel redeemed himself a bit Wednesday, once again pitching in his familiar spot as the seventh-inning setup man. Dotel relieved RHP Javier Vazquez, throwing two-thirds of an inning of shutout baseball. No big deal on the surface, but considering Dotel had a 9.53 ERA over his last seven outings while mostly trying to pick up the slack in the eighth inning for injured RHP Scott Linebrink, it was a step forward.
--RHP Bobby Jenks pitched 1 2/3 innings to get his 28th save of the year Wednesday, making it the closer's longest outing while earning a save since Sept. 13, 2005. It's a trend that might be seen a few times over the next month. First Jenks induced Ryan Garko to hit into a double play to end the eighth inning. In the ninth inning after a Jamey Carroll single, Kelly Shoppach hit into a double play, and that was followed by an Asdrubal Cabrera strikeout. Game, set, match on just 10 pitches, and the White Sox took a one-game lead in the AL Central Division race. "If I could go out there and do that on 10 pitches every time, that would be real nice," Jenks said. "We've been talking about this a little lately -- going out there for 1 1/3 or 1 2/3 innings. About a week and a half ago we started talking about it. It was a good time. I was really fresh. If there are days like this once a week, I'm prepared."
--C A.J. Pierzynski took Wednesday off, with it being a day game after a night game, and with Thursday a scheduled off day. He will start on Friday against the Angels. But with the final three-plus weeks having so much meaning, unless Pierzynski is hurt, expect manager Ozzie Guillen to lean on him a bit more in this stretch.
BY THE NUMBERS: 536 -- Career home runs for DH Jim Thome after he connected on a longball Aug. 31 against Boston. That number moved him into a tie with Mickey Mantle for 14th on the all-time list.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "It's so cool just to have it there. That's where it should be. I'm so glad that we did it and it's where it should be. It's safe, it's where baseball fans can see it." -- Sox slugger Jim Thome, on delivering the ball from his 500th home run to the Baseball Hall of Fame with his father last week.
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