Tuesday, September 30, 2008– On Tuesday night, the Minnesota Twins were in Chicago, meeting the Chicago White Sox met in a one-game tiebreaker to see who would have the right to face the Tampa Bay Rays in the Playoffs.
It’s going to be the White Sox, and Game 1 is on Thursday night at Tampa Bay.
The dueling pitchers tonight were Nick Blackburn for the Minnesota Twins and John Danks for the Chicago White Sox.
Nick Blackburn blinked first.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, he threw a 2-2 pitch to Jim Thome, and Thome sent it over the center field wall.
And that was it. That was enough.
Mike Cuddyer and third-base coach Scott Ulger will probably remember this game, and in particular the fifth inning, forever. Cuddyer was on third, with one out, when Brendan Harris hit a very shallow fly to center field. Cuddyer tagged and tried to score, and Ken Griffey Jr. threw him out by a mile.
Cuddyer must not be a football fan…if he’d tried to dive over catcher A. J. Pierzynski instead of barreling into him, he might have been able to hit the plate before A. J. could apply the tag.
There was not a lot of offensive pop in tonight’s game, obviously. For the Twins, the only two men to get hits were Michael Cuddyer - a double in that ill-fated fifth inning, and Brendan Harris, who got a single in the eighth inning before Nick Punto grounded into a double play to end the inning.
The White Sox did better, getting five hits, but were never able to string two together. Fortunately…or unfortunately, depending on whom you wanted to win!…Thome’s homerun took care of that problem.
Jermaine Dye had two hits, Orlando Cabrera one, and Ken Griffey Jr. had a hit as well.
John Danks pitched eight innings, then White Sox closer Bobby Jenks took care of the Twins in the ninth inning.
Now that the Chicago White Sox are in, it marks the first time since 1906 that both the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs are in the playoffs at the same time.
