Free baseball!
Well, not free baseball - tickets are going for $200 a pop and climbing as of late this afternoon - but Game 163 is upon us.
John Danks will start for the Sox and Nick Blackburn starts for the Twins. Despite Danks' issues of late - and face it, all of the Sox starters have been shelled in one game or another in September - I'll still take him over Blackburn.
Both have pitched 187 innings this year and have 11 wins. Danks wins pretty much every other category of note, incuding ERA (3.47 to 4.14), earned runs (72 to 86) and K/9 (7.46 to 4.48), just for a random sample.
Also, with the game being held in Chicago and not at the Ball Mall, the Sox have a huge advantage walking into the game.
Twins closer Joe Nathan was on the air with one of the radio shows in Chicago as I ran errands this afternoon and was asked to sum up the season with regard to matching 88 and 74 records leading to the one-game playoff.
Nathan said that in addition to both teams being division rivals and constantly beating on each other for the AL Central title, it seemed fitting to come this far to be tied. He pointed to the teams mirroring each other - when the Twins went on a skid, so did the Sox and when the Sox got on a roll, so did the Twins - all season long.
Regardless, both teams weren't expected to be here at the end of the season. I wasn't the only one to completely write off these two in favor of the Indians and Tigers.
Of course that won't help fans of whichever team loses tonight, but it's something.
Late note: John Kruk got done watching Danks speak to Pedro Gomez and was laughing at Danks' comment that he didn't know where this win ranked for him.
"I can tell him," Kruk said. "It's the best he ever pitched in his life. It's the most important game he's ever pitched in his life and it's the best he's ever pitched because he won the big game for this team."
I need Kruk to help me put events in my life in perspective. What do you think he does in the offseason? I mean other than take naps and make crank calls.
(Image from: Some random blog. I'll assume it's from MLB.com)
John Danks will start for the Sox and Nick Blackburn starts for the Twins. Despite Danks' issues of late - and face it, all of the Sox starters have been shelled in one game or another in September - I'll still take him over Blackburn.Both have pitched 187 innings this year and have 11 wins. Danks wins pretty much every other category of note, incuding ERA (3.47 to 4.14), earned runs (72 to 86) and K/9 (7.46 to 4.48), just for a random sample.
Also, with the game being held in Chicago and not at the Ball Mall, the Sox have a huge advantage walking into the game.
Twins closer Joe Nathan was on the air with one of the radio shows in Chicago as I ran errands this afternoon and was asked to sum up the season with regard to matching 88 and 74 records leading to the one-game playoff.
Nathan said that in addition to both teams being division rivals and constantly beating on each other for the AL Central title, it seemed fitting to come this far to be tied. He pointed to the teams mirroring each other - when the Twins went on a skid, so did the Sox and when the Sox got on a roll, so did the Twins - all season long.
Regardless, both teams weren't expected to be here at the end of the season. I wasn't the only one to completely write off these two in favor of the Indians and Tigers.
Of course that won't help fans of whichever team loses tonight, but it's something.
Late note: John Kruk got done watching Danks speak to Pedro Gomez and was laughing at Danks' comment that he didn't know where this win ranked for him.
"I can tell him," Kruk said. "It's the best he ever pitched in his life. It's the most important game he's ever pitched in his life and it's the best he's ever pitched because he won the big game for this team."
I need Kruk to help me put events in my life in perspective. What do you think he does in the offseason? I mean other than take naps and make crank calls.
(Image from: Some random blog. I'll assume it's from MLB.com)
Labels: Post-Season 2008, Twins, White Sox
posted by Matt G at
5:11 PM
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