Around the division: Chicago White Sox

While the first-place Twins were playing the disappointing but still dangerous Angels this weekend, the second-place White Sox had a three-game set in Kansas City.

In theory, this was a chance for the Sox to make up some ground. Instead, they slid a game further back — and did it in excruciating fashion, as all three games went extra innings, with a backdrop of bad blood toward one of the umpires and frustration with the TV rules.

The saga begins with Friday night, when the game began despite the expectation of drenching rain. The rain came, and stayed, and washed out what little had been accomplished.

The crew chief, and hence the man responsible for calling the game, was Joe West. The Sox had a run-in with West in May, and in the wake of Friday's rainout weren't happy with the decision to start the game to begin with.

But:

• Generally speaking, it's not the umpires' decision until the game starts. Up to then, it's usually the home team's call. (There are exceptions, and maybe this was one.)
• If Ozzie Guillen expected heavy rain, he didn't have to start Edwin Jackson. He could have deployed one of his middle relievers.
• Jackson threw just seven pitches before the game was called. Seven! Sure, he warmed up beforehand but still ... this is a guy who threw 147 pitches earlier this season to get a no-hitter, and now he's burned for five days by a seven-pitch outing?

My take: Ozzie messed this one up.

Saturday: Because Fox has an exclusive TV window on Saturday, the rain-out was rescheduled as a nighttime double-header. First game started after 6 p.m. It went extra innings, with the Royals winning. The second game went extra innings, with the Sox winning (and Tony Pena, normally a middle reliever, going seven innings for Ozzie).

Sunday: A 1 p.m. start, meaning three games in 22 hours — and extra innings again, meaning 31 innings in those 22 hours. Royals win.

All kinds of deliciousness for me in this mess of a series.

• Both Rany Jazayerli and Joe Posnanski put up blog posts in praise of Yuniesky Betancourt. OK, lukewarm praise.
• Hawk Harrelson spent Sunday — pretty much all game, apparently — ripping West on the air.
• Ozzie Guillen issued a profane rant. Shocking, I know.

Oh, one more thing about the Sox: Ace lefty reliever Matt Thornton hasn't thrown a pitch since Jim Thome's homer last week and may be headed to the disabled list.

Pitchers gone wild

Edwin Jackson's no-hitter Friday was a bit of a throwback, what with a pitch count approaching 150 and eight walks. A perfect game it wasn't. He threw 79 strikes and 70 balls, a truly ugly ratio. But it worked.

Eight walks in a no-hitter is a lot, but hardly a record.

In 1967, Steve Barber and Stu Miller of the Baltimore Orioles combined for a no-hitter that included 10 walks, two hit batters and two fielding errors — 14 base runners in all. The Orioles lost 2-1. In 1965, Jim Maloney of the Cincinnati Reds walked 10 (and hit a batter) all by himself in a 10-inning no-no.

But my favorite, partly because I remember reading about the game when it occurred, was Dock Ellis' 1970 no-no for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the San Diego Padres. He walked eight and hit one — nine baserunners.

It later emerged that there was a reason for that; not a good one, but a reason. Ellis was tripping on LSD when he took the mound.

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If there's a reason for Carlos Zambrano's dugout meltdown Friday, it's escaped pretty much everybody (except perhaps Ozzie Guillen, who may be trying to fan the flames a bit.)

This isn't anything new for Zambrano: The Chicago Tribune's coverage included this list of his five worst temper tantrums.

And this isn't anything new for the Cubs. Milton Bradley last year, Zambrano pretty much every year — the Cubs seem to have a boundless attraction for, and patience with, knuckleheads with no self-control.

How has Jim Hendry managed to refrain from picking up Elijah Dukes?

Spreading rumors

The Star Tribune, having opted not to send one of its baseball writers to the World Series, did send Joe Christensen to the general managers meetings in Chicago this week. I suppose two days in Chicago is cheaper than 10 days in Philly-NYC.

The GM meeting is a rumor mill; historically, trades and contracts are talked, but action comes about a month from now, at the winter meetings. But then, there have been some trades of significance already — Akinori Iwamura to Pittsburgh, Mark Teahen to the White Sox, J.J. Hardy to the Twins — so who knows? The GMs might surprise us.

Chatter gleaned from the Internets:

* The Tigers are said to be shopping Edwin Jackson. There is a difference between shopping him around and actually trading him, of course.

The motivation is said to be financial. He's arbitration-eligible, which means his salary is about to accelerate, and you may have heard that the Detroit economy isn't strong these days.

I wonder, however, if the Tigers aren't suspicious about his declining numbers as the season progressed. First half ERA: 2.52. Second half ERA: 5.07. Seven homers allowed through June; 20 from July on. Twenty-three extra base hits allowed in Oct./Sept.

If the Tigers trade Jackson, yeah, they'll shed a growing financial obligation. But it may also be a good baseball move.

* Carl Pavano's agent says the free agent starter would like to stay with the Twins. Pitching coach Rick Anderson is said to be enthusiastic about that idea. Usually, if the player wants to stay and the team wants him to stay, he's staying, but there may be a gap between what Pavano thinks he should be paid and what the Twins think.

I get a chuckle out of the defense that Pavano's 5.10 ERA in 2009 was inflated by his first start, in which he gave up nine runs while getting just three outs for Cleveland. Toss out that one, and his season ERA drops to 4.86 — which is still almost a half-run higher than the league average.

* Christensen also says the Twins may pursue Jarrod Washburn. That would be a mistake, especially with the planned outfield defense.

* The Red Sox reworked Tim Wakefield's contract and said the reason was to save money under the competitive balance tax. They were about 45 million short of being hit by the tax last season, so the speculation is rife that they're going to spend spend spend. Which may be the best possible news for Matt Holliday.