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Twins make final bid to overtake Tigers for division crown

Oct 1, 2006 - 2:57 PM Chi White Sox (90-71) at Minnesota (95-66) 2:10 pm EDT

MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- The Minnesota Twins are already assured of a playoff berth. However, a division crown would a little more special.

Carlos Silva will be on the mound when the Twins make their final bid to win the American League Central Division in Sunday's regular-season finale against the Chicago White Sox.

Despite three losses in their last four outings, the Twins can win the division title for the fourth time in five years with a victory and a loss by the Tigers to the Kansas City Royals. If both teams win Sunday, Minnesota would be the wild card team because Detroit owns the tiebreaker.

Tadahito Iguchi homered among his three hits and drove in three runs as the reigning world champion White Sox won their third straight game with Saturday's 6-3 triumph.

Silva (10-15, 6.17 ERA) has dropped three of four decisions to Chicago this year. He went 2-3 in September, including Wednesday's loss to the Royals where he yielded five runs and six hits in four innings.

Javier Vazquez (11-11, 4.77) is winless in his last nine starts and is 0-3 against Minnesota in 2006. Despite recording 12 strikeouts, he was tagged for six runs and six hits in seven frames of Tuesday's 6-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians.

Chicago, which has split its first 18 encounters with Minnesota this year, has won five of its last seven games overall.