AL Central Drama: Tigers Win, And Now the Twins Must

A tiebreaker on Tuesday is almost certainly happening. Francisco Liriano is out to sew it up for the Twins against the Royals.

The Twins and Royals have traded a couple of blows, but Minnesota retains a five-run lead entering the seventh inning.Kansas City managed to score three runs and knock starter Carl Pavano out of the game in the sixth, while Dusty Hughes has taken the ball for the Royals.

Fernando Rodney was able to shut down the White Sox, and the Tigers pulled out a win they desperately needed. This was Justin Verlander’s 19th win of the season for Detroit.

Now the Tigers, like the rest of us, watch the Twins-Royals game in Minnesota. The Twins currently lead the Royals in the 5th, 7-1.

Fernando Rodney, who took the ball from Verlander in the eighth, is taking the hill again to start the ninth inning. Stay tuned…

Apparently the Twins looked at the scoreboard, saw that the Tigers were up 4-0, and said to themselves, “Yeah, that sounds good.” In the first inning, Jason Kubel hit a three-run homer, and Delmon Young followed suit two batters later with a blast of his own.

The Twins lead 4-0 in the top of the second. The Tigers lead 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth. The regular season might not end today for these two teams.

The Tigers’ Justin Verlander is turning in exactly the sort of start his team needs today. Through five innings, he’s allowed only two baserunners — a hit and a walk — and is holding the White Sox scoreless.

Magglio Ordonez added a solo dinger in the bottom of the fifth to put the score at 4-0, Detroit.

Gerald Laird, you see…he’s the catcher, and he doesn’t have a lot of speed. That’s why the White Sox were completely unprepared for him to lay down a bunt. Laird managed an infield hit.

The Sox were made to pay for their lack of faith in Laird’s wheels. Later in the inning, Ryan Raburn jacked a two-run home run to put the Tigers up, 3-0.

In the bottom of the first, the Tigers put runners on second and third. The White Sox elected to intentionally walk Miguel Cabrera. Fortunately for the Tigers, Carlos Guillen then managed to work a bases-loaded walk. White Sox pitcher John Danks then managed to regroup, striking out Brandon Inge and eliciting a groundout from Curtis Granderson to end the inning. Detroit leads, 1-0.

On the last day of the regular season, the logic gets very simple: if one team wins and the other loses, the winner takes the AL Central and the other goes home. If both win, or both lose, the Twins will find themselves playing a one-game tiebreaker for the second consecutive year.

Given the implications today, live game threads are an essential companion. Check them out at Twinkie Town and Bless You Boys.

The Tigers dropped another one to the Chicago White Sox tonight, and the loss makes tomorrow’s game vs. the White Sox a must-win scenario, as the Twins have continued to apply pressure, winning twice vs. the Royals, and are now tied with the Tigers for AL Central lead with one game to go. SBN’s Bless You Boys has more from the Detroit perspective:

The Tigers’ lead is now half a game. If they lose tonight, their AL Central lead is suddenly evaporated with one game left to play. Plenty of fun and drama is sure to be had at our Tigers blog, Bless You Boys, as the game is in progress.

The Royals managed to score three runs off Minnesota’s bullpen in the 8th inning to tie up the score at 4, but Michael Cuddyer responded in the bottom half of the inning with a solo shot, and the Twins held on to a 5-4 win.Closer Joe Nathan struck out two in the ninth inning to pick up his 47th save of the year. Now, the state of Minnesota huddles around its television*. The Tigers host the White Sox at 7:15 p.m, and if they lose, the AL Central is tied heading into tomorrow.

*The state of Minnesota may well be home to more than one television. I’ve never been there.

The difference between a 4-1 score and a 4-3 score seems bigger than two runs, especially when the score changes from the former to the latter in the eighth inning. The Royals’ Alex Gordon hit a two-run home run off Jose Mijares, who relieved Nick Blackburn at the start of the inning. Minnesota leads, 4-3.After surrendering four runs in six innings, Zack Greinke was also pulled.

With two out in the sixth inning, and Nick Punto on third, deserving

Joe Mauer dug in against deserving Cy Young winner Zack Greinke. After falling into an 0-2 hole, Mauer roped an

It’s not terribly surprising to see Royals ace Zack Greinke keep the Twins hitless through three innings, but Twins starter Nick Blackburn is looking even better. Blackburn has thrown four scoreless innings without allowing a single baserunner. In fact, Joe Mauer accounts for the only baserunner of the game so far, as he worked a walk from Greinke.

Twinkie Town is game-threading this business. Check it out.

Twinkie Town points out a historical curiosity:

Two games before the end of the season, we find ourselves with not one, but two down-to-the-wire playoff races that could make history. Here’s the difference: whether the Rockies and Dodgers win or lose, they’re both playing playoff baseball. Either the Twins or the Tigers, though, will miss the postseason. These next two games are for all the marbles. Actually I guess it’s for all the baseballs, since they’re playing baseball.

After splitting their four-game series, the Tigers and Twins each have three games left to play in the season. Detroit has a two-game lead, meaning that if they can win two of their last three versus the White Sox, and/or if Minnesota drops two of three against the Royals, the Tigers clinch the division title.

Minnesota gave a couple runs back in the 8th, but held on to win easily, 8-3. They’re now right where they started this four game series: two back of the Tigers in the AL Central race.

But with only three games left in the season, the Twins still need a minor miracle to win the division.

Well this is really getting awesome in the final innings.

After the warnings were issued in the bottom of the 8th, Bonderman hit Delmon Young in the leg with the first pitch in the top of the 9th. Young rolled around in pain for a few seconds before getting up and proceeding to point and yell … at his own dugout. He had to be restrained by Ron Gardenhire, who escorting him to first. I really have no idea what Young was doing. Perhaps yelling at the pitchers for causing all of this? Or maybe angry that his teammates didn’t rush the field, ready to brawl? Who knows. Young hasn’t always been the most mentally stable athlete to start with.

Remember earlier when I said things were getting “testy.” Well, yeah, that is sort of coming to a head now.

First, the homeplate ump issued warnings to both sides after Twins pitcher Mijares threw behind Tigers batter Adam Everett. This was followed by a meeting at the mound with the pitching coach, during which Jim Leyland decided it was a good time to come on out onto the field and get ejected. He appeared to be arguing about the “sickle of death” call from the previous inning.

The Twins look like they’ll be playing at least one more game of meaningful baseball. They now have a seven run lead in the bottom of the 8th after an Orlando Cabrera double plated three and a Joe Mauer single knocked in a fourth run in the top half of the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, with Ramon Santiago on first base and one out, Miguel Cabrera hit a pop fly down the right field line in foul territory. After a long run, Denard Span made the catch and Santiago tagged up and made it to second. The Twins appealed, claiming he left too early. The umps agreed -- double play, inning over.

Jim Leyland ran out to argue briefly. It appears as if he had a solid case:

Twins starter Scott Baker is out after five strong innings, in which he allowed just one run while scattering five hits. He gives way to Jon Rauch.

The Twins lead 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth.

Detroit loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a hit-by-pitch, an error and a walk, but were unable to drive anyone home.

Things did get a touch testy, though. Thames was hit with a fastball way up and in, which he didn’t seem overly thrilled about. He then slid hard into Orlando Cabrera at second to break up a double play, which Cabrera wasn’t thrilled about either. It appeared as if there was some jawing between Orlando and the Detroit dugout.