Tonight: White Sox, Twins fight to the boredom for AL Central pennant

White Sox and Twins begin a "decisive" series tonigth. That is, unless, Twins win two outta three, and then we're pretty much back where we started.

As I’m sure all of you were eagerly anticipating the showdown of showdowns, tonight is game número uno of the final, and decisive, series between the Twins and the White Sox. A minuscule two-and-a-half games separate them in the standings and with this three-game series, it could all be said and done come Friday morning. Or the Twins could win two of three and this thing would literally come down to the wire (but don’t blame me for the apathy, that’s exactly where we were two months ago).

And so, to preview tonight’s match in the Dome of Doom (as melissa would say), a fun game of he said, he said:

”He hasn’t been,” Guillen said Sunday of Vazquez as a big-game pitcher, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “That’s the bottom line.”

– Ozzie calling out Tonight’s starter, Javier Vazquez

“One thing Ozzie said, and it has been in my head the whole year, and I think in one of the meetings I mentioned it, we don’t act like we are in first place,” Cabrera said. “We don’t look like the team to beat. It seems like we are hoping for a win every day, and I don’t think that that’s the right attitude. Once the other team scores before us, that’s what it seems like.

“There are a couple of things that we are missing, but at the end of the day, we have done a pretty good job so far. I think we have enough to go to the postseason. We will see what happens after that.”

– Orlando Cabrera on the Sox lack of hunger for the pennant.

“That’s our goal,” Guillen, the Chicago White Sox manager, said during a weekend series against Kansas City. “I hope that happens. I’ve seen Minnesota clinch in my ballpark once. I hope we can clinch in theirs.”

– Ozzie on the want to clinch in the Metrodome.

”I’m never going up there,” Williams said. ”Bad things happen whenever I go up there. Twelve more games [until the Twins get a new ballpark in 2010]. Twelve more games.”

– Kenny Williams, back in August, speaking of his disdain of said Metrodome.

“This is what it’s all about — big games in September,” Twins catcher Mike Redmond said. “Who’d have thought we’d be playing big games in September when we were in spring training after losing all those guys [Torii Hunter, Johan Santana, etc.]?”

– Twins catcher Mike Redmond on the improbability of either team being in the pennant race this year.

And of course, from the same Star-Tribune article:

“I think we’re ready,” Guillen told reporters Sunday in Kansas City. “Mentally, these guys should be prepared to go out and play hard and play well. That’s all you can do.

“And make sure you grab a big net and get those piranhas and put some poison in the water to make their teeth fall out.”

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And for the record: The White Sox are 1-5 at the Metrodome in 2008. They’ve been outscored 33-23, they’re hitting .264 and their starting pitchers have a combined 5.40 ERA.

Goooo Sox!