White Sox Beat Twins To Make Playoffs

The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 1-0 tonight to advance to the postseason to play the Tampa Bay Rays.

The White Sox were led by a dominating performance by pitcher John Danks and a mammoth home run from slugger Jim Thome. Ken Griffey, Jr. also had a strong throw from CF to throw out a runner at the plate, which proved to be a big play in the game.

I'm not surprised that Danks came up big tonight, because I had talked positively about him back in July:

Danks has been excellent this season posting a 7-4 record with a 2.67 ERA, 94 strikouts and 162 ERA+ in 114.7 innings. Statiscally speaking, he has been the best pitcher on the White Sox this season and Beyond the Boxscore took a look at why he has been so successfull. The conclusion is that Danks is getting more ground ball outs than in previous years, which is probably due to a combination of his addition of a cutter, increasing velocity, and different break from his slider/curveball. At just 23 years old, the White Sox could have a solid left handed pitcher for years to come if Danks can keep pitching this way.

Danks was the White Sox best pitcher all season, despite finishing with a record of just 11-9. He had the lowest ERA of any White Sox starter(3.49) and the best ERA+(132). He certainly looked great tonight and the White Sox would not be in the playoffs right now without him.

By the way, I am loving the baseball coverage by TBS, which should come as no surprise because the basketball coverage by TNT/TBS is always solid. It would be nice if the other stations could cover sports as good as TNT and TBS do.

More: MLB