73-61 this season

Sometimes, it is nice to play a bad team. Especially when you play that bad team like they are a bad team. You know the team is bad so you don’t mess around and you feel confident in stepping on their throats when playing them to pick up easy wins. So far, the Sox have done just that. Tonight, Robin will make sure they keep doing that by sending out the following guys:

Alejandro De Aza CF, Youk 3B, Big Donkey DH, The King 1B, Alex Rios RF, The Cuban Tank LF, The Cuban Missile SS, Tyler Flowers C, Bacon 2B.

Jose Quintana will start for the Sox tonight. It will be his third career appearance and start against the Twins for Jose. While he has no record against the Twins, he has given up the runs, resulting in a 5.40 ERA.

His last start was pretty pathetic against the Orioles last week where he gave up five runs on seven hits in just 3.2 innings worth of work. In those five runs, he ave up two home runs, walked on and struck out one. Tonight’s game will be his 20th appearance of the season and 18th start. Fortunately, he has been pretty good at home with a 2.64 ERA over eight games at the Cell.

55-80 this season

Ron Gardenhire will send out the following rag of dudes to try and play spoiler:

Ben Revere CF,  Jamey Carroll 2B, Dandruff Boy C, Josh Willingham DH, Justin Morneau 1B, Ryan Doumit LF, Chris Parmelee RF, Trevor Plouffe 3B, Eduardo Escobar SS.

Scott Diamond will start for the Twins. Diamond has been quite the surprise this season and a bright spot for a beleaguered pitching staff. On the season, he is 10-6 with a 3.21 ERA. He recently threw his first career complete game shutout in July against Cleveland. He also started the season for the Twins with 14 consecutive scoreless innings pitched.

Against the Sox, he is 1-3 with a 3.70 ERA in four games. This season, he is 0-2 with a 3.38 ERA against the Pale Hose. His first career win did come against the Sox in August 2011.

*Notes: As expected, Dylan Axelrod has been recalled from Double-A Birmingham. The White Sox have been in first place for 95 days this season. They have sat in first for every day since July 24 and all but eight days since May 29. The Twins have used 12 starting pitchers this season. That is the highest number they have used since using 12 in 1997. The team has used 13 in 1995 and in 1962. The record of 17 was used in 1950.