A quick reminder that all is not lost for the White Sox

September 23, 11:15 PMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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Javy Vazquez was lit up by the Twins.

I'll admit that I'm a huge pessimist when it comes to the White Sox and Twins—evidence here, here, and here.

And that's exactly why it's odd that I don't feel so bad about the Sox' 9-3 thrashing at the hands of the Twins on Tuesday.

Javier Vazquez had a bad start. He threw a good first inning, but it all started to go downhill when he opened the second inning by nibbling at the strike zone with MVP candidate Justin Morneau at the plate. Vazquez ended up walking Morneau before leaving a changeup right down the middle to Sox killer Jason Kubel, who promptly deposited the ball into the upper deck in right field to give the Twins a lead they would not give back.

Vazquez was consistently dropping his arm slot, leading him to have less control and less speed on his fastball throughout his entire outing. It's no coincidence the Twins knocked him around—he was doing the same thing last week against the Yankees with similar (bad) results.

This wasn't a game the White Sox were going to win. Scott Baker has been one of the few consistent starters for the Twins down the stretch, and there wasn't a whole lot Sox hitters could do against him today. He had nearly perfect location of his pitches and changed speeds well. The Sox' hitters were jammed on good fastballs more times than I've seen this year by Baker.

Yes, this was a typical "Twins" win—they small-balled the White Sox to death and hit some timely home runs behind excellent pitching. Yes, the White Sox outfield defense looked slower than ever. And, yes, the White Sox had a couple of chances offensively that they didn't capitalize on.

But all is not lost—the Sox have two games left in this series, and all they really need to do is win one of them to give themselves a clear path to the playoffs.

Wednesday's matchup seems to favor the White Sox, as Mark Buehrle hasn't allowed more than three runs in his last four starts while Nick Blackburn has allowed six runs in back-to-back starts. However, Buehrle is just the kind of pitcher the Twins hit well—somebody they can take the other way and get groundball base hits off of on the fast turf of the HHH Metrodome.

However, Buehrle has been through the failings of the White Sox in Minnesota over the last five years, and I'm sure he's well aware that solid outing could be enough to get the White Sox to the playoffs. Whether he delivers on that is still yet to be determined, as is how Blackburn pitches in his first home start since Sept. 9, when he went seven innings and allowed just two runs against Kansas City.

If the Sox fail to win tomorrow's game, they still have Thursday to pull out a victory with Gavin Floyd going to the mound. While he'll be facing Kevin Slowey, who threw a complete-game shutout in his last start against the White Sox, Floyd has, time and time again this year, been the pitcher on the mound when the White Sox needed a big win. Thursday's game will be big regardless, and even though the Sox will be facing Slowey, I personally feel pretty optimistic about Floyd's chances that night.

I'll hit panic mode if the White Sox lose the next two games. Even then, though, if they win out agianst Cleveland and Detroit, they'd get at least a one-game playoff with the Twins that would be played at U.S. Cellular Field, where the White Sox have had success (7-2) against the Twins this year.