Sudden Death at the Baggydome!!

86 wins and 162 games failed to settle the American League Central...now it's do or die for the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers...











One day after Brett Farve dominated his former team from Green Bay, the Metrodome plays host to yeat another big-time game...one that could very well potentially be the final game the Twins ever play in that facility...





After losing two critical games to the Tigers last week, it seemed like a 3 game defecit with 4 games remaining was nearly insurmountable...However, the Twinkies showed their grit by winning their final four games....their final two against potential Cy Young winner Zack Greinke as well as a very convincing 13-4 victory Sunday afternoon..





On the other side of things...The Tigers
lost 3 consecutive games heading into the final game of the season and needed a clutch preformance by their ace, Justin Verlander, just to end the season in a tie with Minnesota...











On top of the fact that they are stumbling into this game...Miguel Cabrera has been the talk of the town for getting into a scuffle with his significant other after a night of boozing with the rival White Sox..Does he deserve to be benched..absolutely! However, Leyland sees otherwise and he will be hitting 4th today...a move I can't exactly blame him for...





Going for the Tigers today will be 20 year old rookie Rick Porcello...a man who is making a strong case for rookie of the year with a 14-9 record..This year against the Twinkies, Ricky has pitched well with a 3.09 e.r.a over 4 starts and Mauer has only hit .111 against him this year...However, in Minnesota, the rook is 0-2 with a 6.30 e.r.a. Add the earth-rattling atmosphere that the dome will surely have and it may be a bit too much for the Jersey product to overcome...



For the Twins, 15-game winner Scott Baker gets the call...Although he had a good start against the Tigers last week giving up a run on 5 hits to get the win, Baker has a 6.75 e.r.a against Detroit this year...The #3 hitter for the Tigers today is Magglio Ordonez and he has hit .460 against Baker in his career!! He's had a down year, but has hit in his last 12 games...including 2 hits in 3 at-bats against Baker on Oct 1st....he's my x-factor for the Tigers today..





So who am I taking? Here's the bottom line...why is this game in the Baggydome? Because the Twins WON the season series 11-7...in the dome, the Twins have won 7 of the 9 games against the Tigers this season..The Twins have hit .307 against the Tigers this year and the Tigers e.r.a vs. the Twins this year is an awful 5.48....I'm going with the team with the most momentum...and the team with the raucous croud...im going with the Twinkies today and at least one more baseball game will be played in the dome before the Twins move to Target field...





For the 9th time in the history of baseball, there will be a one-game playoff as well as a date with the New York Yankees in the ALDS...For the Twins, this is the second year in a row that there will be a game 163..they know what it takes to come through in this type of situation...This game will undoubtedly not come up short in the drama department...