Yeah, I feel horrible. There I am talking about Paul Konerko and his lack of extra base hits, and now he’s out with a concussion. I watched Jarrod Dyson run into him last week, but I thought Konerko would shake it off and continue playing. He rarely misses time with injuries, so the fact that he’ll be out awhile makes the injury that much more serious.

The Sos didn’t need their Captain this weekend against the A’s, not with A.J. Pierzynski in the lineup. Pierzynski is half-way through the month of August and he is well on his way to being named Player of the Month.

In the 3 games, Pierzynski went 5-14 with 2 home runs and 3 RBI. He also scored from 1st in the finale on a ball that never left the infield. The A’s had a huge brain fart, allowing Pierzynski to take 3rd, and then letting him score after forgetting to cover home plate. I don’t agree with the Sox announcers that claimed him to be the smartest player in both leagues, but I will say he is in the top half.

I am surprised, with the way he’s been hitting, that he hasn’t been plunked more often. Former Sox pitcher Brandon McCarthy took care of that, hitting the Sox catcher in the elbow in the opener. I know he was just protecting one of his guys, but Pierzynski was none too happy. If McCarthy had looked his way, Pierzynski may have made a different kind of trip to the mound than the one’s he’s used to making.

More on Pierzynski. In the games he’s played, he has a 13 game hitting streak. His average in that time is .379, including 4 long balls and 10 RBI.

The only guy who can come close to matching him is Alex Rios. Rios had 9 game hitting streak snapped in game 2, but he has gone hitless just 3 times in his last 20 games. In that time he has gone yard 5 times with 15 RBI. Rios’ consistency this year has been astonishing.

Dayan Viciedo is doing his month to month swoon. The man hit .206 in April, .351 in May, .179 in June, .256 in July and he is at a robust .152 so far in August. He did have a hit in all three games vs. Oakland. His 2 hits in the finale gave him his first multi-hit game since July 25th.

With Konerko out, Adam Dunn has to step up. Right now it’s tough going for the big man. Not only has he gone 13 straight games without hitting a home run, but he is also 6 for his last 47.

He went 1-11 this weekend. He also lost him home run lead to Josh Hamilton, who now has 32. On a positive note, Dunn is playing stellar defense, making a number of sparkling plays at 1st base.

Great to see Dwayne Wise back. I’m sure the Sox are happy to have him back on their side, especially after he tattooed them when he was with the Yankees. Obviously, he’ll always be known for his catch to preserve Mark Buehrle’s perfect game a few years back, but he is a good guy to have around.

He doesn’t talk much, doing most of his speaking on the field. In his return to the South Side, Wise went 2-4.

I guess Tyler Flowers isn’t washed up, after all. Flowers is gonna be a fine MLB catcher, whether in Chicago or somewhere else.

On Saturday, he exploded, going 3-3 with a 3-run blast.

And kudos to Jordan Danks, who hit his 1st walk-off on Friday. Danks was drafted 3 times by the Sox, and this past off-season was left unprotected, and off the Sox roster.

No other team took a chance on the younger Danks proving the old saying that, “Sometimes it’s the deal that you don’t do, that turn out to be the best”.

How come Chris Sale isn’t being mentioned as a Cy Young candidate? Sale won his 14th game of the year on Sunday putting him one off the A.L. lead. His 2.60 ERA places him 4th in the American League. If the Sox make the post-season, and he keeps pitching like he has, he has to be considered.

Every breathe at The Cell was held after Sale went down chasing a ground ball on Sunday. He turned out to be fine, finishing with 11 strike outs. This is the 3rd time this year Sale has finished with more than 10 K’s.

Gavin Floyd’s fastball looked good on Friday, hitting 94 MPH a few times.

It was his other pitches that had no bite. For the 2nd straight start Floyd gave early runs, but like his last outing against the Angels he settled down to make it through the 6th inning.

We’ve seen the good Francisco Liriano, and now we’ve seen the bad. Liriano looked awful on Saturday in his less than 4 innings of work. Well, the entire Sox staff couldn’t slow down the A’s. It was so bad that Oakland even scored on Brett Myers, who allowed his first runs as a member of the Sox.

In that 2nd game, the Sox battled back from 6-2 to lead 7-6. They would ultimately lose 9-7, but their resiliency is impressive.

After a 5-4 home stand, the Sox now head to Toronto and Kansas City with a 2 game lead over the Tigers in the Central.

No, I didn’t talk about the Youkilis HPB injury. If I don’t talk about it then it won’t be serious.