Sox Drawer: Please stop now boys!

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Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2010
4:36 PM

By Chuck Garfien
CSNChicago.com

We interrupt this pennant race to bring you the following announcement:

The Minnesota Twins will eventually lose a baseball game. We dont know how, we dont know where, we dont know when, but at some point (hopefully in the near future) that thing known as a defeat will rear its ugly head and hit the Twins right between the eyes.We hope.

Yes, the White Sox number-one menace is at it again, doing its best to make life miserable for the South Siders. It just might be the Twins greatest strength. Hopefully it wont become the Sox greatest weakness.

After finishing one of their best weeks on the road in years, seven straight wins, most of them ranging from dramatic to improbable, closing the stretch by beating Clay Buchholz, John Lackey, Jonathan Papelbon, and Jose Valverde, the Sox looked up at the standings and noticed how much ground they had gained on Minnesota.

One measly game.

While the Sox were exhausting every ounce of their bodies and minds, scoring 24 runs after the 6th inning to keep their playoffs hopes alive, the Twins just went out and took six of seven from the Tigers and first-place Rangers, five of their wins decided by a single run, and one by a trigger-happy 3rd base umpire who called the Rangers Michael Young out for interference with two outs in the top of the 9th inning, ending a furious Texas rally.

But whos complaining? Me, I guess.

If the team Ozzie Guillen famously called the piranhas happen to be getting in the White Sox heads, the Twins are doing everything in their power to keep the Sox out of theirs.

Sunday while the Sox were mounting their late-inning comeback in Boston, someone operating the Target Field scoreboard decided to show highlights of the rally on the Jumbotron.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire didnt like it one bit.

Scoreboard watching is one thing; having White Sox highlights during our game is a joke, Gardenhire told reporters. It brought everybody down. The crowd got deflated. We dont need that. This is our game. We dont care what the White Sox do until we play them. Theyve never done that, and I hope they never do it again.

And to be sure, Gardenhire spoke to the Twins front office about it. Monday, they showed highlights of the CardinalsBrewers game instead.

One week from tonight scoreboard watching wont be necessary. The White Sox and Twins will be sharing the same field for three games at U.S. Cellular Field, easily the biggest series of the season.

Will the Twins cool off by then? Anythings possible. But judging by history, not probable. Guillen knows it.

Its nice when the Twins lose, but the way things are going for themI expect to be close enough when we face them, said the White Sox manager. I dont expect anybody to go out there and do us a favor. In the meanwhile, we wish theyd lose. But we just have to continue to play the way we are and take it for the best.

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