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It's win or go home. After pulling off a 5-1 victory over Cleveland on Sunday, the Sox are in a sudden-death situation. They need to win their makeup game with the Tigers on Monday afternoon at the Cell to force a tie with the Twins. If that happens, then Minnesota invades for a one-game, winner-take-all playoff game on Tuesday at the Cell for the Central Division crown. The division winner gets a day off before traveling to Tampa for Thursday's opener of the American League Division Series with the Rays.

So how did we get here? Well, the Sox tanked on Friday and Saturday, hitting well but getting no pitching. Meanwhile, the Royals were playing spoiler at the Metrodome, unexpectedly winning on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was a different story for both contenders. The Twinkies blanked KC, and Mark Buehrle provided the pitching that had been lacking lately. (Fortunately for Buehrle, the Tribe scratched ace Cliff Lee, Sunday's scheduled starter. Lee finished 19 games over .500 for a team that subtracting his record was 19 games under .500. Nice break for Buehrle and the Sox.)

Buehrle, pitching on three days rest again, threw 111 pitches over seven innings (he threw 121 in his last start against Minnesota), yielding nine hits, but only one run. Buehrle erased five of those base runners with four double plays and a pickoff of Franklin Gutierrez. Matt Thornton and Bobby Jenks finished up, and for a change, the relievers shut down the opposition.

Paul Konerko hit his fourth home run of the Cleveland series and his 22nd of the season to tie the game at 1-1 in the second. Juan Uribe drove in a run on an error, Orlando Cabrera had one on a sac fly, and Jermaine Dye, who broke out of his recent slump over the weekend, plated a pair of teammates with a single to provde the other four runs.

Now the Sox face old friend Freddy Garcia, who gets the start for Detroit on Monday. The Update still likes the fact that the Tigers figured they'd be golfing by now and may not want to play this game. Jim Leyland is saying all the right things about wanting to be a spoiler, but he couldn't get the Bengals to play all year long, so why start now. (The Tigers will be spoilers even if they lose -- spoiling the Twins chances to win the division without a playoff on Tuesday.) It's up to Gavin Floyd, who will be pitching on three days rest again -- it didn't work well the last time -- to keep the season alive for the Sox. And not to get ahead of ourselves, but if the Sox manage to beat the Tigers and then the Twins, they will hold the distinction of playing four different teams in the space of five days. Go Sox!