You have to hand it to the Detroit Tigers. For the moment it looks like they may have wrapped up the American League Central division. The Chicago White Sox came into Detroit for a three game series poised to at least try to take two out of three and get back in the race. Instead of getting back in the race they were thoroughly dominated and are all but mathematically out of it.
The White Sox had some controversy when manager Ozzie Guillen expressed opinions on a new deal. Ozzie has one year left on his contract and wants a multi-year deal going forward. In the past this kind of distraction has taken pressure off the team and allowed them to just focus on baseball. This time it did not work.
Detroit won the first game. Won a dramatic second game with a walk-off home run by Miguel Cabrera off of Santos that still may be traveling, then dominated the third game 18-2 as they pounded Mark Buerhle all over the field on the ESPN Sunday night nationally televised game.
The White Sox have some decisions to make. They have a high payroll with some guys that are not producing and they have some discord in their front office. Add to that the fact that assistant GM Rick Hahn will be high on the list of some of the GM jobs that are opening up at the end of the month and Owner Jerry Reinsdorf will have a busy off-season.
Detroit on the other hand will be getting ready for the playoffs and another run at the World Series. They have what may be the most dominant pitcher in baseball and a very good hitting offense. They have a very good manager also, so they have the ingredients for a long run in October.
By the way they have just beaten Cleveland 4-2 and their magic number now stands at 16.