(Your 2008 White Sox, inspiring the utmost confidence)
The 3-4-5 of the Sox order has gone 3 for 22 in these games. It took two double plays to get out of the second inning. Buehrle and Cabrera picked off Gomez at second, but didn’t get the call and Gomez came around for the winning run. Buehrle (L 14-12, 8H 3R 4BB 3K) went a good eight, settling down after a bad pair of innings, but allowed runners to screw up his look to the plate. Meanwhile, a familiar nickel-and-dime Twins contact affair of flares, bloops, broken-bat chip shots and frictionless moon bounces buried the Sox under the green concrete. For their part, the deadliest bats in the AL failed to capitalize on Blackburn (5IP, 8H 2R 2BB 2K) or get to the pen, who gave up one hit and one walk combined.
It’s a testament to baseball, that most generous and redemptive of games, that a squad this distracted could turn in a performance like this and still somehow be on top in the division. Nonetheless, it’s clear this wasn’t the right year to figure out how to beat Oakland.
Tonight, with everything on the line (everything, that is, that hasn’t been raked already into the dealer’s chip rack) the matchup is Gavin Floyd (16-8, 3.84) vs Kevin Slowey (12-11, 3.85). Get to Slowey, win the game. If Nick Swisher gets out that blow-up doll again, let me reccomend a bicycle pump this time. It’s hard enough to breathe in that bubble.