The Chicago White Sox didn\u2019t seem like a team that could thrive in the clutch after being swept by the Minnesota Twins last week. <\/p>\n
Their last two games, however, tell a different story. After prevailing in consecutive must-win games, the White Sox (88-74, +6.6 units) face the Twins (88-74, +10 units) in a one-game tiebreaker for the AL Central title Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field.<\/p>\n
Sportsbook.com has established Chicago as a -147 money line favorite<\/strong>, with the Total at 9. TBS picks up the action starting at 7:35 pm ET.<\/p>\n Chicago was swept in a three-game series at Minnesota, falling one-half game behind the Twins in the AL Central and starting a string of five straight losses entering its final two scheduled games.<\/p>\n But the White Sox beat Cleveland 5-1 on Sunday and won a rainout makeup with Detroit 8-2 on Monday to force one last game with the Twins. The winner of this contest will advance to face AL East champion Tampa Bay in a best-of-five series beginning Thursday.<\/p>\n Chicago hit only .216 and scored just 11 runs in last week\u2019s series at Minnesota, where Chicago went 1-8 this season. But the White Sox have won seven of nine games against the Twins at U.S. Cellular Field.<\/p>\n Chicago won a coin flip held earlier this month to decide which team would host the tiebreaker, catching a break due to its struggles at Minnesota. The Twins have also struggled on the road, going 35-46 (-8.6 units) overall. Minnesota is also 11-31 in road games vs. AL teams allowing 4.7 or less runs a game in the second half of the season over the last two years.<\/p>\n John Danks (11-9, 3.47 ERA), starting on three days\u2019 rest, is one of the few members of the White Sox who\u2019ve had a tough time at home against Minnesota. He is 1-2 with a 7.45 ERA in four starts versus the Twins at Chicago, and 2-3 with a 6.88 ERA in seven starts overall.<\/p>\n And it doesn\u2019t help that Danks is coming off his worst start of the season, allowing seven runs and seven hits in four innings as Chicago lost 11-8 to Cleveland on Friday night and he and the Pale Hose are 6-13 in home night games the last two seasons. The 23-year-old left-hander did go 1-0 with a 0.98 ERA in his previous three starts.<\/p>\n Blackburn, though, earned a win against the White Sox in his last outing, giving up two runs and eight hits in five innings as Minnesota won 3-2 on Wednesday night. Despite the stakes at hand for this pressure-filled game, Blackburn isn\u2019t going to change his approach. \u201cI\u2019m going to go out there with my game plan in my mind, and hopefully I can execute everything I can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Besides the off day edge, Minnesota is 19-11 after allowing one run or less this season. Chicago can counter that with its hot bats, posting a 17-4 record in home games after scoring eight runs or more this season.<\/p>\n The weather is expected to be cooler, however trends suggest runs should be scored. The White Sox are 14-4 Over in home games versus a starting pitcher like Blackburn who strikes out three or less batters. The Twins right-hander and his teammates are 7-0 Over in road games when playing against a team with a winning record this season.<\/p>\n This will be the fourth one-game tiebreaker that has been played in the AL. The last such contest was in 1995, when Seattle beat the California Angels 9-1 for the AL West title. Last season, Colorado beat San Diego 9-8 in 13 innings in an NL Wild-Card tiebreaker.<\/p>\n Chicago is trying to return to the postseason for the first time since winning the World Series in 2005. Minnesota, meanwhile, has a chance to make the playoffs after a one-year absence.<\/p>\n AL Central Playoff Betting Preview from Sportsbook.com which has established Chicago as a -147 money line favorite, with the Total at 9. TBS picks up the action starting at 7:35 pm ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[2718,102,2723,146,991,505,66497,2722,2721,911,1027,1039,1178,1266,2719,2720],"class_list":["post-2092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-al-central-playoff","tag-baseball-betting","tag-baseball-gambling","tag-bet-on-baseball","tag-picks","tag-gambling-on-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-lines","tag-mlb-playoff-betting","tag-odds","tag-prediction","tag-previews","tag-sportsbookcom","tag-twins","tag-white-sox","tag-white-sox-vs-twins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2092"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106511,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092\/revisions\/106511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Minnesota will send Nick Blackburn to the mound tonight. Blackburn (11-10, 4.14 ERA) is 0-2 with a 7.20 ERA in three career road starts versus the White Sox, and 2-2 with a 5.28 ERA in five starts and one relief appearance against them overall.<\/p>\n
Bet on this playoff matchup that gets underway tonight in Minnesota. Sportsbook.com MLB Betting!!!!<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"