A.L. Central Title is on the Line as Chicago Battles Minnesota

The Minnesota Twins got the upper hand in the A.L. Central Tuesday with a blowout win against the Chicago Whit Sox. Neither starting pitcher brought their best stuff, but Scott Baker outlasted Freddy Garcia as he allowed just 4 runs to Garcia’s 6.

This may be just another regular season series, but due to the closeness of the race in division, this may have serious implications as to which team finishes first and which team goes home. Chicago was supposed to of had the pitching advantage in this 3 game set as they lined up better for Tuesday and Wednesday’s games. Now that the Twins have thrown a wrench in the White Sox’s expectations for the series, it is imperative that Chicago bounces back with a strong showing Wednesday.

They again have the edge on the mound as Minnesota was forced to bring up Glen Perkins from triple-A to fill the void left by Kevin Slowey. Slowey needed to push back Wednesday’s start because of a sore elbow. John Danks has thrown well for the Sox over the last few weeks. He’s won 4 of his last 5 decisions, and had raised his record to 11-8 this year. He beat Minnesota back on July 15th despite allowing 6 runs on 9 hits. There is no doubt that he will have to have a better performance this time around if Chicago is to get even with Minny in terms of record.

Minnesota has a top 5 line-up offensively. They can hit for power and lead all of baseball with a team .282 batting average. Joe Mauer and Delmon Young have led this offense in Justin Morneau’s absence. Mauer and Young are both currently batting over .320 and have slugging percentages around .500. If the White Sox are to fend off the Twins for the division title they will have to do it with solid pitching down the stretch. MLB handicappers predicted that these teams would finish 1-2 in the A.L. Central with the Twins winning. It looks as though it will be a much tougher task then baseball experts had thought as the White Sox have hung around for far too long to be considered a fluke. Games 2 and 3 of this series may inevitably end up becoming the difference in which team gets the division Championship at the end of the year.

Related posts:

1. White Sox and Twins fight for A.L. Cental Title
2. Indians and White Sox in A.L. Central Showdown
3. A.L. Central Heats Up: White Sox get Manny
4. A.L. Playoff Positioning as Texas plays Minnesota
5. Stephen Strasburg goes for his 3rd straight Win against Chicago

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