Only 32 days ago, the White Sox boasted a 4.5 game lead over the Minnesota Twins, the Chicago sports talk radio hosts were ready to hand the Commissioner’s trophy to the Sox and I was guaranteeing that Ozzie Guillen’s team would miss the play-offs.
Since July 15th the Twins have been 8.5 games better than the White Sox and have taken a firm hold on first place in the AL Central Division. I don’t mean to get all self-righteous or anything, but come on, I deserve an “I told you so,” right?
By Peter Christian
As much as White Sox fans would like to point out the closeness of the games between the Twins and White Sox, the Twins have dominated the series during the past 15 months. Since May 21st of last year the Minnesota has won 20 of the 26 meetings between the two teams and more recently, six of the last seven match-ups.
But really, the dominance extends beyond just the past few years. Since MLB changed schedule formats to feature more inter-division games (in 2001) the Twins have won the season series between the two rivals seven times, tied once and lost once.
That kind of superiority is weighing on the White Sox and their fans. So much so that the Chicago bullpen coach Juan Nieves mentioned the possibility of throwing at Joe Mauer to start a brawl.
Tuesday night’s dramatic win can’t help but tear down the White Sox confidence to beat the Twins. Jim Thome’s two run walk off home run to give the Twins a 7-6 victory in the 10th inning was so deflating that the entire White Sox fan base felt like they just chased a Crave Case from White Castle with a jumbo bowl of Super Colon Blow.
(It should be pointed out that the last two games the White Sox have played at Target Field have ended in a 7-6 Twins walk off win after the White Sox entered the final inning with the lead… a total coincidence, but still)
Yeah, think about that one… kinda gross, right?
The win for the Twins was extremely exciting as it was the first walk-off hit in Target Field history (the previous two walk-off plays were on a wild pitch and an error- also against the White Sox), it ensured that the White Sox wouldn’t be able to pull even atop the division after the 3 game series and it clinched at least a tie in the season series over Chicago. One more win over the White Sox this year will give them another season series win and will mean that should there be another tie at the top of the AL Central after 162 games, the Twins will have home field advantage in game 163.
But, let’s be honest, the White Sox aren’t going to force a game 163. They’ll give the division crown away long before it comes to that.