AL Central race watch: Status Quo remains
The secondary story line from last night’s Twins-Rays game was the very apathetic AL Central race. Sure the Rays clinched their first ever playoff berth and all, but what continues to amaze me is how, as the season winds down, I’m slowly coming to the realization that I could’ve guessed the outcome of this pennant race two months ago simply by thinking nothing was gonna change.
Ain't it a bit premature, Twins fans?
The Twins are a team that seems to be running on fumes, but then the White Sox can’t figure out the Royals’ Kyle Davies, a 8-7 pitcher who threw 65% of his pitches last night for strikes.
At least the Twinkies are making their postseason plans, selling “postseason strips,” as opposed to Ozzie’s hesitation on setting the playoff roster (yes, I know, the Sox are also planning their playoff ticket sale, but Twins’ strips are on sale now). You’d think the White Sox knew this was a pennant race.
OK maybe I shouldn’t come down too hard on the Sox; to their credit, as opposed to previous seasons, they’re hitting homeruns with runners on base, but because of that, you have a game like last night’s, where the tying run is mere inches away from coming home off the bat of Jermaine Dye. Instead the ball ends up in Mark Teahen’s mitt and the game ends with Thome, another “big bopper” as Ken “The Hawk” Harrelson would say, striking out swinging.
So where are we now? Exactly where we were on Thursday, with a two-and-a-half game gap between Pale Hose and Twinkies, and their “decisive” three-game series looming on Tuesday.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
Well they have a crucial 3 game showdown this week that theoretically will determine it one way or another… unless of course the Twins take just 2 out of 3, then it’s still a a nailbiter of boredom.
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September 22nd, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Good point Ben… wanna put some money on it? Ya know, make it interesting?
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September 23rd, 2008 at 12:04 am
No thanks… I only put money on interesting games ;-)
Either way the winning team will probably be fodder for the Rays.
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September 23rd, 2008 at 12:56 am
I think it will be really interesting to see if the Sox can win at least one in the Dome of Doom. They have had a hard time up in Minneapolis so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them lose all three. If that happens they would be tied in the loss column and then things would get really interesting.
Even though I have been listening to Sox fans predict doom for the Cubs in October, I’m actually hoping the Sox win all three and clinch up in the land of the piranhas. Considering how unexpected it was for the Sox to actually be in position to win their division it would be nice to see them take it. It would be a shame to see the break out performances of Carlos Quentin, Alexei Ramirez, John Danks and Gavin Floyd all be in vain. It’s also kind of fun to hear Ozzie and Kenny tell the media, “We aren’t as dumb as you thought.”
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