"The wai-ai-ting is the hardest part..."
-Tom Petty

Par for the course.  There was no way this was going to be easy.

On the day the Twins finally put together a complete game on all sides and beat the Royals, the White Sox wake up from their own slumber to avoid an end to their season for at least one more day.  On Monday at 1:05 CDT, Detroit will play a game that for all intents and purposes means nothing to them...they'll "be playing for pride", they'll be playing the role of spoiler, and oddly enough they'll be playing with hopes that they'll be sharing the bottom spot of the AL Central instead of having it all to themselves.  But that's it; their season will end tomorrow.

If, as their respective records suggest, Detroit can't get the J.O.B. done, the Twins will fly to Chicago tomorrow night in order to play for the division at U.S. Cellular on Tuesday.

Looking back to Sunday afternoon's game for just one moment, we can thank Scott Baker for a beautiful season, capped off by seven scoreless innings when his team needed him the most.  He struck out nine and was impressive for the duration, throwing 70 of his 99 pitches for strikes.

If the Twins do need to play on Tuesday, Nick Blackburn will take the hill.  Kevin Slowey, who was originally slated to start, hasn't been able to throw due to swelling of his right wrist.  The swelling has stunted the wrist's mobility, and in fact the injury has conjured some debate as to whether or not Slowey would be able to pitch in the post-season.  With playoff rosters having to be set one hour before first pitch of a team's first playoff game, the longest Minnesota could go before having to make that decision would be Thursday.  At that point they'd have to know if Kevin would be ready to pitch at 100% for a start in game three or game four of the divisional round.

For now there's nothing much we can do except wait, and I think Tom Petty has a pretty good line for that.  He might have something to help you relax for a while too, but I wouldn't know anything about that.