While it is technically a regular season game (So... Pedroia could conceivably still get the Batting Title)... it feels like a playoff game.

Can't seem to find who will be in the broadcast booth today.

/jeter singles

HERE COME THE YANKEES!!!!111 /chip caray

/abreu strikeout

/arod gidp

Frankly, I'm praying for Orsillo for this game, but he's probably doing the Brewers/Phillies if last year is any indication of the assignments.

Conceivable I suppose, but Mauer would have to go for 0 for 7 for Pedroia to get the batting title.

Nick Blackburn, RHP (11-10, 4.14)

John Danks, LHP (11-9, 3.47)


I really don't like either team, but I'll be rooting for the Twins tonight.

Broadcast info from the Star-Tribune

Thank God. I hear Darling is quite good. Dick Stockton is okay, though his New York accent and occasional bluster grates on the ears.

It could go 18 innings.

Living in the NY area I get to see Darling work Mets games. I'd rate him as above average and getting better. He offers some good insights and he is improving as he becomes more comfortable in the role. (Last year he was wooden at the beginning of the season and had to learn to interact properly in a three man booth.) I find his voice a little flat, but it doesn't seem to bother anyone else, so maybe that's just me.

Will be interesting to see how he adjusts to a national gig this postseason.

Looks like there will be some runs scored...





Game preview

In 2005 the Red Sox finished with the same record as the Yankees, with the Yankees ahead in the season series. Yankees won the division. This year the Twins won the season series vs. the White Sox with the same overall record and... one game playoff. Can someone tell me what I'm forgetting about '05 that was different?

Both the Yankees and the Sox were guaranteed to make the postseason, so head-to-head was used to determine seedings.

Only one of the White Sox and the Twins is going to the playoffs. In such cases they have a playoff game to determine who goes home.

In 2005, Both the Yankees and Sox qualified for the playoffs, thus no need for a playoff to determine divisional champion (this also happened in 2001 with the Astros and Cards). I believe, the Cardinals, however, still claimed to be co-divisional champs despite being recognized as the Wild Card.

In 2008, only one of the Twins and White Sox can make the playoffs with the Sox claiming the Wild Card.

I'd forgotten the playoff picture for that year- thank you for your humbling response. On another note...shouldn't the home field coin toss be put aside if the season series does not end up a tie? Should travel considerations trump the Twins season advantage?

Sadly, this game cannot possibly even approach this game, probably the single most exciting (non Red Sox) baseball game I've ever seen.

Still, this should be an interesting matchup between two fairly similar pitchers and teams. I'd be surprised if either starter lasts beyond the 5th or 6th, at which point both teams have to rely on solid bullpens (Dotel and Linebrink for the White Sox, Guardado and Crain for the Twins -- advantage White Sox) until they get to their fantastic closers (Nathan and Jenks -- advantage Twins).

Nick Blackburn, MIN: 11-10, 4.14 ERA, 101 ERA+ in 187 IP (32 GS)

Nick's a young, tall righty who relies mostly on offspeed stuff to get by. His fastball is rarely clocked above 90, but he effectively mixes a good curveball with a darting slider to keep hitters off-balance. He doesn't get many strikeouts (93 in 187 IP), but he doesn't walk many people either (36). As is not uncommon among younger starters, Blackburn's home/road splits are stark: At home he's 8-3 with a 2.95 ERA in 14 starts. Away he's 3-7 with a 5.20 ERA in 18 starts.

One thing to look out for: His 187 innings pitched in 2008 are already almost 30 above his career high of innings pitched in a season, 159.2 in 2007 (between AA, AAA and ML). This may help account for the following split:
Pre-ASB: 7-5, 3.65 ERA
Post-ASB: 4-5, 4.98 ERA

Against the White Sox he's 2-2 with a 5.67 ERA in 5 starts. No one on the team hits him very well or poorly -- AJ Pierzynski (5-for-10, 1 K) and Alexei Ramirez (3-for-4, 0 Ks) lead the way.

John Danks, CWS: 11-7, 3.47 ERA, 132 ERA+ in 187 IP (32 GS)

A young lefty drafted 9th in 2003 by the Rangers, Danks -- together with Gavin Floyd -- is the future of the White Sox rotation. Like Blackburn, he relies on his offspeed stuff (in this case a plus changeup and curveball) to complement an unnoteworthy fastball (this one sits in the low 90s). Like Blackburn, Danks is much better at home (7-3, 2.92 ERA).

Also like Blackburn, Danks is way over his previous innings high, the 155 innings he tossed between high A and AA in 2005. Even moreso than Blackburn, Danks's season has been a tale of two halves:
Pre-ASB: 7-4, 2.67 ERA
Post-ASB: 4-5, 4.73 ERA

Against the Twins he's 1-1 with a 7.91 ERA in 4 starts this year. As the sky-high ERA indicates, a lot of the Twins really beat up on Danks: Morneau (6-for-17 with 3 home runs), Cuddyer (7-for-12), and (unfortunately for Dustin's batting title hopes) Mauer (8-for-12) lead the way.

Edit: Fixed a stat

I had the same thought. The problem is, the coin flip is a time-honored tradition, however antiquated it might be. But check out this clip for evidence for why the practice should be retired.

Not surprisingly, it works out as a pretty big advantage for the White Sox, who were 7-2 against the Twins at home this year, vs. 1-8 at the Hefty dome.

Twins:
D Span RF
A Casilla 2B
J Mauer C
J Morneau 1B
M Cuddyer DH
D Young LF
B Harris 3B
N Punto SS
C Gomez CF
N Blackburn P

White Sox:
O Cabrera SS
D Wise LF
J Dye RF
J Thome DH
P Konerko 1B
K Griffey Jr. CF
A Ramirez 2B
A Pierzynski C
J Uribe 3B
J Danks P

Fucking hell, the M&M boys are surrounded by vomit in that lineup.

Don't you EVER talk about Nick Punto like that again.

My brain will be rooting for the White Sox, because I want to reduce the chance of playing a playoff series in the Metrodome to zero. I've been getting laughs from my non-diehard friends with Tito's classic line after Ortiz lost a homer there by hitting a speaker: "It's like playing putt-putt golf where you've got to go around the windmill."

I never know who my heart is going to root for until the game starts. I may find myself rooting against Ozzie Guillen, the alleged smartest guy in MLB and the only player in MLB history to fall victim to the hidden ball trick twice in the same season.

In a perfect world the team that won the season series should host the game, but logistics (ticketing, stadium availability, etc) trump it.

Did anyone else read that SI article about Cuddyer and all of those other future major leagues from Virginia? Pretty interesting.

alex cora vehemently disagrees

Eck on TBS is going to be awesome this postseason, especially with the opposing personality in Cal Ripken.

Oh come on, what fun are you.

the Twins against the Rays. Arguably the 2 most laughably bad ballparks of he modern era. Speakers, catwalks, balls being lost in the ceiling. Anything is possible. There is just so much potential for really unintentional comedy in that series

I don't see why the coin flip is any worse than anything else. Ohhh, I won the season series. Awesome job there clownshoes, that means you sucked more than the opposition against all the other teams. At least a coin flip is the fairest way of deciding where you play - it's by chance, nothing else.

I think one game playoffs can produce the most exciting games possible considering the incredibly high stakes. There's no backstory, it's just mano a mano for 9 innings, or 27 innings in the old National League. Possibly not a concidence that of the four most celebrated games since the Second World War, two were playoffs (1951 Game 3, 1978).

I don’t think I can handle the Rays, Twins, AND Angels in the same postseason. The Maddon, Gardenhire, and Scioscia ball licking would be too much to take.

After losing Santana and Hunter in the off-season, no one at ESPN had the Twins in the playoffs.. Hard to root against a team that was supposed to finish 4th in their division.

Edit:Looks the same in MLB.com's pre-season picks

And how exactly does this differ from the other 162 Twins games?

I am also very torn on which team I want to win this game. I hate the Metrodome, and that may be my overriding concern as well. (Like someone else on this site said recently, I'm rooting against all domes.) I also hate the Twins offense, between the impatience at the top and their overreliance on small ball (due in large part to not having enough real hitters).

On the other hand, I despise Ozzie Guillen. I can't bring myself to root for him. And I would guess that Boston would have a harder time beating the White Sox than they would beating the Twins, since they're just a better club.

Mostly, I'm rooting for a great baseball game that goes 22 innings and contains injuries to key members of the winning team.

Fn Comcast still doest offer me TBS HD grrr

since the blackout worked so well for georgia.....

Dick Stockton!
With our country's desperate need to achieve energy independence, they trot out that utterly plastic simulacrum of a human being made from hydrocarbons?

There MUST be better announcers they could get than Dick fricking Stockton. His peak was 30 years ago with channel 38. He's the ultimate place holder, never truly horrendous but never ever actually good.

For things like the Super Bowl, yes, but for the situation we're talking about, I've never understood this argument. The existence of this game was not known until last night. Why would it matter at that point where it is played? I doubt tickets were even put on sale before last night.

As far as availability, there is definitely a pecking order to these things. Not as much of an issue with baseball parks (no one in their right mind would allow any other event besides the home team's games to be scheduled this time of year), but I have seen concerts and such get bumped from arenas due to changes in NBA/NHL schedules.

Well, you are not missing anything. HD on TBS is a fraud, I have it on now, it is not real HD ,it is cheesy and muddled and far from crisp and sharp, same as last year.
What a HUGE disappointment, was hoping they would improve it from last year, but nope.

The Blackout is actually pretty cool looking.

I've come to terms with Ozzie. There's a certain honesty about Ozzie that I find appealing even when I think something he said was stupid.

And I hate the Twins, mostly for the way the sporting press loves them for idiotic reasons. Doing it the RIGHT WAY!! Fuck them.

Die splintered zygotes!!

they should have did it yesterday to make the embarrassing fact the stadium was only half full.

The son of Towny Townsend, who's mentioned in that article, posts here. I briefly played for Towny a long time ago, a few years before that AAU program got going.

Why is Mauer on the bench?

Correction: Joe Mauer is surrounded by crap in the lineup.

um, what

Why did they SAY Mauer is on the bench when he is clearly not? TBS is so bad.

Crowd noise seems a bit louder this year, not as loud as on ESPN, but it's hard for it to be worse than last year.

Whoaaaaa... everybody's wearing black. Kinda creepy.

That's baseball.

/John Sterling

Shit luck.

Waa waa waa waaaaaaaaaaaaa

That's karma for trying to duck to screw with the ump.

I really hope this goes extras and Mauer goes 0-for-7.

Mauer has a shit game and the Twins lose= MVP for Pedroia

Is .450 in batting practice good?

So, if Mauer goes 0 for 5, or something, this IS a regular season game, and Pedroia could become the batting champ.