One last gasp for the 2009 White Sox

October 3, 9:56 PMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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Although the White Sox will finish this year with just their second sub-.500 record since the turn of the century, they're keeping me watching until the bitter end. And although picking between the Tigers and Twins is like picking between voting for Kang or Kodos, hey, the Sox beating Detroit these last two games has at least made the final series of the year fun.

If the Sox are a wounded animal exerting all its remaining energy on a strike on another animal, then Detroit's looking like a sick, old, or crippled animal that's lost the will to live. Detroit's managed to scratch across one run against the Sox in the last two games, and after scoring that one run today Magglio Ordonez lined out and Miguel Cabrera hit into an inning-ending double play.

So now Detroit has to turn to Justin Verlander to face John Danks tomorrow afternoon. Jim Leyland didn't want to do that, as using Verlander Sunday means he won't be available for a tiebreaker or ALDS opener start...if Detroit gets there.

The division won't necessarily be decided tomorrow, but the Sox have a chance keep things interesting. Danks threw his first career complete game last time out, and while that was against the lowly Indians, if he throws the ball that well against the Tigers on Sunday we could be seeing either Minnesota in the playoffs or a tiebreaker on Tuesday.

For baseball's sake, I hope there's a tiebreaker on Tuesday. There's almost no chance that it'll be as exciting as last year's tiebreaker, but baseball is at it's best when every pitch means something. Tiebreakers and game fives/sevens always provide those kind of atmospheres.

So while I won't be rooting against the White Sox tomorrow, I will be rooting for Detroit and Minnesota to do the same thing and force game 163 to be played on Tuesday.