The Indians and White Sox face off this evening as Cleveland tries to take 3 out of 4 from Chicago. They're in for a tough battle as Jose Contreras takes the mound for the White Sox. Lefties are batting just .209 vs. Jose with a .291 slugging percentage. Paul Byrd is enjoying tremendous run support. The Indians scored 53 runs while Byrd is in the game vs. 37 allowed by the pitcher. It seems he should be doing better than a 4-4 record.

The Yankees go for a sweep of the Tigers this evening after a complete game by Mike Mussina last night gave the Yankees pen a much needed rest. Chien-Ming Wang takes on the hot Justin Verlander. Wang's translated his terrific support into a 5-2 record. The Yankees scored 56 runs for the righty while he's allowed 39. Verlander is third in the AL in ERA at 2.55. Six of the seven home runs against him came with the bases empty, and the opposition is hitting just .200 with runners in scoring position against Verlander. In his four game winning streak, he's allowed just four earned runs 30 1/3 innings, a 1.19 ERA.

And for those of you with time to watch or listen this afternoon, Jose Castillo took up where Jason Bay left off and homered in five straight games. The Pirates face the Brewers at 12:35 EDT.

Enjoy!