stringer bell

Great job Clippard, with a little help from Laz Diaz!

I don't want to see Cabrera bat this inning.

All those soft singles and we're just a long ball away from a tie game.

Can't have a comfortable win, can we?

As much as I hate the Pizza Ranch commercial, I hate the Mountain Dew commercial more.

The robe apparently only belongs to outfielders.

6-3 or more lead to hand off to the bullpen. I hope the Twins come back and score a couple this inning.

Fortunate that the Twins added those two homers.

Let's get Maeda out of this inning.

Cleveland may win out. They play Pittsburgh this weekend to close out the season.

What size are the White Sox'collars?

2-1 Cleveland, bottom of 7. Giolito out. Toronto up 5-1, but the Yankees have two on none out in the top of the fifth.

Three singles as good as a two-run homer.

Bieber out after 5 innings. The game is still tied at 1. Giolito over 100 pitches working in the 6th.

Tigers didn't have many good swings that inning. Now, let's hope Sanó can swing OK.

Marnie lets you in on the writing on the caps.

JD just missed it.

Running and throwing out base stealers sure has diminished in the advanced metrics era.

Early results are promising out east. Giolito has spotted the Biebs a run in Cleveland 1-0 for the Ohioans, although Bieber has walked two and thrown over 50 pitches in three innings. Toronto scored two in the bottom of the first and leads NY 2-0 after one. Wildman Robby Ray is on the hill for Toronto (Buffalo). Neither game is close to locked up, but promising nonetheless.

OK for the balance of the regular season (four games) they start Maeda, then Berríos, then Pineda? The finale would be Bailey or Odorizzi? What happens to Hill? Does he take a trip to St. Paul to throw against the possible replacements? The team does have a chance to win the Central and needs wins to clinch a #4 seed regardless.

If Chicago wins the last two games, they will clinch a better record than Cleveland, as will the Twins.

I will elaborate on my three-team tie scenario from the post above. I think Cleveland may run the table for the rest of the regular season. First and foremost, they start Bieber and Plesac vs. the White Sox in the next two games, then they play Pittsburgh to close out the reason. Secondly, no one can get Ramirez out right now when it counts. Winning out would give Cleveland 36 wins. When Chicago finishes with Cleveland, they get the Cubs, who probably need a win or two to sew up their division. I doubt the White Sox sweep the Cubs, but if the Sox get two wins that would also give them 36 wins total. The Twins have only four games left, beating Detroit tonight and winning one or two versus Cincy gets them to 36-37, which might be enough. It would also be nice if the Twins could wrap up the tiebreaker versus New York, in the still likely case that they play the Yankees in the first round. Given both the Twins and the Yankees' home records this year, it would be an advantage to play the Bronx Bombers at home. The Yankee opponents the rest of the way have plenty to play for, both Toronto and Miami have solid shots of getting in, but haven't clinched.

Am I right that the Twins hold the tiebreaker over the Yankees if Toronto (Buffalo) wins the next two games while Minnesota beats Detroit? Also, if the three teams in the Central tie, that the Twins win the tiebreaker, with Cleveland second and the White Sox third?

I think Bailey has a legitimate shot to be the fifth starter. He seemed to have pretty good fortune the first three innings, but then some bad luck the second time through the order. I could see him and Odo piggyback the last game with the evaluation of who is sharper determining who makes the second round playoff roster. I was encouraged to see the velocity pick up in the second and third innings.

White Sox still have a magic number of 4 vs. Twins. Twins magic number vs. Yankees is 4 Twins magic number vs. Cleveland is 2