Sweet Home Chicago: White Sox beat Twins 1-0, advance to playoffs

September 30, 10:08 PMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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Jim Thome's blast gave the Sox a 1-0 lead in the sixth.

So the White Sox hadn't won a 1-0 since June of 2006.

So the White Sox had lost 14 their last 27 games.

So the White Sox were swept by the Twins last week.

So what?

Thanks to a dominant pitching performance by John Danks and a long solo home run by Jim Thome, the White Sox defeated the Minnesota Twins 1-0 in game No. 163 to win the American League Central Division and send the South Siders to the postseason for the first time since 2005.

With postseason hopes hanging on every pitch, Danks delivered with a masterful, eight-inning shutout performance in which he allowed just two hits, three walks, and struck out four. He struck out AL batting champ Joe Mauer twice. He held Carlos Gomez and Denard Span, who came up so big for the Twins last week in Minneapolis, hitless. Possible AL MVP Justin Morneau? Not a chance. He went 0-3 against Danks, who looked unhittable for much of the game.

Danks' located his fastball with perfection, keeping it down in the zone and right on the corners of the strike zone. His cutter jammed Twins hitters all day, and his changeup and curveball kept them off-balance. Under the circumstances, it was the best outing of Danks' career without a doubt.

That's not to say Twins' starter Nick Blackburn didn't have a good outing, either. The White Sox had fits against Blackburn's sinker, driving the ball into the ground all day. However, a 2-2 high changeup to Thome in the seventh inning was the mistake that cost the Twins the division, as Thome nailed it over 460 feet to the centerfield concourse to give the White Sox a lead they would not relinquish.

The atmosphere at U.S. Cellular Field was electric, as a crowd of 40,354 rabid Sox fans dressed in black witnessed one of the most exciting games in Comiskey Park/U.S. Cellular Field history. The "blackout" was a success, as the Sox did what the University of Georgia could not do Saturday night.

Another nice note—in 2005, the White Sox never clinched anything at home. They won the AL Central in Detroit, the ALDS in Boston, the ALCS in Anaheim, and the World Series in Houston.

The White Sox did it—they won the AL Central. Six months ago, nobody could have expected this. Yeah, it took 163 games, but the Sox won the division.

They beat the Twins, and now it's on to Tampa Bay.

Let's get ready for some October baseball.