Minnesota Plays Kansas City Next, White Sox Play Cleveland; Who’s Going to Have it Harder?

We all knew it wasn’t going to be an easy three-game series for the White Sox, and at least they put up a fight, for one game. Everyone figured it would come close halfway through the season, but no one thought it would be this close. With the White Sox barely hanging on to make the playoffs, the Twins have given them a ride, and now it’s time for the Indians to try the same. While we still have to wait and see what happens, the Sox luckily have one trick up their sleeve—or, uh, sock—thanks to the force of nature.

Even though the Sox may have lost the lead, they still have a chance to make up a game against the Tigers, where they would pick up ground to have a possible playoff game for the first spot in the AL Central, depending on how the last series goes. I don’t want to go through the whole, “if the Sox win this, and the Twins win that” deal, but the main game could be that missed game. If the Sox win straight out at home versus Cleveland, then they have a better chance at making it to the playoffs; if they don’t, and the Twins win just as many games, the Tigers’ game determines the lead in the AL Central.

If the Sox play like they did against the Twins, there is not much hope that they could get into the playoffs in the first place. And unless the trade for Ken Griffey starts to pay off—which it did in the Twins series, where he was one of the only run producers of the first two games—the Sox need to pick things up. Orlando Cabrera, Alexie Ramirez, and Jim Thome were the only other players to get a few hits during the first two games, and by the time the rest of the team decided to show up at the end of the series, it was too little too late. The Sox blew a lead in the final definitive game of the series, and the Twins went to sweep them in 10 innings on Thursday to take first by a half game in the AL Central division.

Ozzie Guillen was not in the wrong when he said Vazquez doesn’t come through in “big games.” Javier Vazquez ended up choking in four innings during his start and gave up as many runs as the Twins’ starters allowed in the first two games of the series combined. Those five runs were all batted in by Griffey Jr. himself, and during his first game of the series he surpassed Sammy Sosa as the fifth place career home run leader with his 610th home run, which turned into 611 after the second game. Orlando Cabrera hit his first home run since August 18 in the final game against Minnesota.

So what’s next? Cleveland comes to the U.S. Cellular Field, where the Sox have not been doing so bad. Based on the previous meetings between the Sox and the Indians, those games look to favor the Sox since they won all six games at home against them. Overall, the Sox have won 10 out of the 15 games played earlier this season.

The Twins have Kansas City coming to their Metrodome, where they just swept the Sox, and could possibly do the same to the Royals looking back on their season. So, it looks like we have a running. If the Twins sweep and the White Sox sweep in the next series, the decision will come down to the last place Tigers on Monday. The White Sox don’t really have a choice except to win if they want any chance to make the playoffs this year. Cleveland will come in fighting, after losing outright at Cellular Field earlier this season and in 2005 when they were in the running for the playoffs.

 

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