Jermaine Dye Topic Page

The Twins and White Sox had their first meeting in early April shortened to two games because the White Sox bullpen was tired of cold weather. The two teams ended up splitting the low scoring series. Both teams have lost five of their last seven, but the White Sox have just ended a five game losing streak with 2 wins over the LA Angels. They sit next to each other in the standings, each a growing distance (now about 4 games) from the hot Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers.

The series has been cut short due to cold weather and wind on Friday, but it appears that the next two games will go on as scheduled. Sidney Ponson will be shuffled to Monday leaving Carlos Silva to get the start on Saturday afternoon and Johan Santana to pitch on Sunday. The White Sox will stick with their original rotation plan by having Javier Vasquez pushed back to Saturday and left handed rookie John Danks face off against Santana on Sunday.

MLB's globalization efforts are turning baseball into a year event. March brought us the World Baseball Classic and November will see the inaugural Japan All-Star Series featuring a team of MLB "All-Stars" against Japan's best players. Taking a look at the MLB roster, it's clear that the term All-Star might be an exaggeration, but what more can you expect after a long regular season has just ended?

The last two nights have been perfect indications that the playoff race is heating up. Two of the most exciting games of the season came back to back, and best of all, the Twins won both. The Twins jumped out to an early lead against Jose Contreras, scoring five runs in the first three innings and knocking Contreras out of the game after 2 2/3 innings. Santana wasn't as dominate as he usually is, but he managed to get through 7 innings allowing just three runs (two earned) and it looked like everything was going well—the Twins were cruising to victory and the bullpen was going to get some rest. Then things got interesting.

I'm not sure if it was Steve Bartman, a good Twins fan or a typical White Sox fan, but some guy at U.S. Cellular field helped out the Twins in the bottom of the ninth on Friday night. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and Chicago trailing by 1 run with a runner on second, Jermaine Dye hit a foul ball near the stands along the first base line. Justin Morneu ran to the and put his glove under the ball only to have it bumped by the fan. Interference was called and the game was over. Twins Win!

Friday night's series opener between the Twins and the White Sox was the game that the White Sox were supposed to win. Boof Bonser hadn't shown much all season long and the way of the offense has struggled over the past week and a half, it appeared the Twins would need good pitching to win games. However, Boof pitched just well enough to keep the Twins in the game and the bullpen shut down the White Sox, allowing just one hit—a weak infield chopper— in the final 3 2/3 innings of the game.