White Sox 4, Tigers 1
Eighth inning
Ozuna hits a 2-1 pitch into right for a single. And Alan Trammell has seen enough of the whiny Grilli, who failed to step up in his "playoff" game. Chris "I'm not only a customer but the president" Spurling comes on. Spurling gets Dye to bounce into a double play. Konerko walks. And eventually takes off for second and Everett pokes a single right where the shortstop was. Rowand fails to take advantage of the move, though, and pops out.
Polanco singles to right and Ozzie goes and gets Garcia. Enter Cliff Politte. Good timing by Comcast getting a shot of Garcia sitting in the dugout and putting in his post-start celebratory dip. After a lengthy at-bat, Shelton pops out to Uribe in shallow left. Maggs hits one deep and over Rowand's head, scoring Polanco. Ozzie wants the lefty to face Pena and he goes and gets Politte for Neal Cotts. Cotts does his job, striking out Pena. And Ozzie now makes the big, fat guy sign with his hands, meaning he wants the fleshy, flame-throwing Bobby Jenks. Jenks gets a strike on Monroe and then throws about a 45-footer that barely pings off Pierzynski's shoulder. Maggs takes third. No matter because Monroe grounds out. We move to the ninth.
White Sox 4, Tigers 2
Ninth inning
Fernando Rodney is the Tigers' new pitcher and he plunks Pierzynski to open the ninth. Uribe bunts Pierzynski over to second. Close play at first, though. Harris walks. Podsednik hits it through the hole and into left and for some reason Joey Cora sends the battleship Pierzynski and he's out at the plate. New father Joe Crede bats and he grounds out.
Here we go. Three outs away. I'd like to take this opportunity on Reader Appreciation Day and the last regular-season FTC to thank everyone for stopping by all season and making this feature what is it. Thanks. OK, enough of that. Jenks remains in the game. Inge hits a single to left. Wilson bounces one to Crede, who boots it. He was trying to look to second before he could play the ball. Dmitri Young hits for Infante. D'meat hook fans quickly. Here's TF South guy Granderson and Jenks carves him up with a back-door curve. Polanco bats with two outs and two guys on and hits a liner to Konerko for the last out. Sox clinch. Choke on that. And Hawk goes a bit crazy. Yeeaassss!
I hope the Sox brought their own champagne because I'm sure you can't get anything without a screw cap in Detroit. They can always do like Fred Sanford and mix ginger ale and ripple and make champipple.
The Sox gather on the mound.
Final: White Sox 4, Tigers 2
In the Sox clubhouse there is much hugging and spraying of champagne and beer, handing out of t-shirts and hats and plastic everywhere. It should be noted the Sox did bring their own bubbly and it has a Sox logo on the label.
Thanks for reading everyone. Enjoy the playoffs.
