White Sox Lose AL Central For The First Time In Two Months.
After two months of leading the AL Central, the White Sox find themselves at a crossroads now looking up at the division leading Tigers with just under a week left of regular season baseball play. Wednesday night in the rubber match-up of the their 3 game series against the Cleveland Indians, we saw the White Sox bats finally come alive in the first inning where 3 runs were scored highlighted on a double from A.J. Pierzynski to bring in Adum Dunn. Things were initially looking up for Chicago as their fans needed that huge sigh of relief in the opening innings but things drastically changed as the game progressed.
In the top of the 4th inning, second baseman Jason Kipnis would single to center Lonnie Chisenhall and Ezequiel Carrera to even the game at three all. The next inning, Chicago would see their last scoring effort of the game when shortstop Alexei Ramirez would double to center bringing in A.J. Pierzynski to regain the lead for the time being. The White Sox pitchers, who would finish the game walking 12 batters total, would walk 3 back-to-back batters in the top giving up their lead by walking Carlos Santana with the bases loaded led by a Shin-Soo Choo double starting the inning, who scored on this walk.
The next inning, Shin-Soo Choo would get his team another run by grounding out to first with Lou Marson; then preceding that in the top of the 8th, Vinny Rottino would the finishing touches on the game and the series with a homer to center for his third of the year to end the game.
Chicago really didn’t need this loss with their hunt for October as they’ve only won 1 of their last 8 games. The White Sox who have absolutely no chance at landing a Wild Card bid this year have until next Wednesday when the season ends to regain AL Central supremacy if they want to contend in the playoffs next weekend. They start a crucial 4-game series against Tampa Bay which they throw Jake Peavy out to face James Shields who’s been having a great season with a 15-9 record. Proceeding that series, they end the season at Cleveland for the final 3-game series of the season.