Better Hope Jake Peavy Wasn't Watching

All morning the only thing sports fans in Chicago could talk about was whether or not Jake Peavy was going to agree to a reported trade that the White Sox and San Diego Padres had worked out.  It seemed as if the entire city was preoccupied with the "will he or won't he" proposition, and apparently it wasn't only Chicago fans who were wondering.

The White Sox seemed to be pretty preoccupied with what was going on with Peavy as well, because they sure weren't focused on playing a baseball game against the Twins this afternoon.  Whatever Peavy ends up doing, the Sox better hope he wasn't watching Thursday's game while trying to make his decision.

The White Sox got absolutely pasted by the Twins to the tune of 20-1.  No, you did not read that wrong.  After two successive nights in which the White Sox offense started to show life and Mark Buehrle and John Danks turned in strong starting performances, the Sox completely collapsed in the series finale.

Bartolo Colon only lasted two innings and allowed eight runs, including seven in the second inning, though only one of the runs were earned thanks to two big errors by Wilson Betemit at third base.  Lance Broadway and Jimmy Gobble followed up Colon's performance with their own horrible outings, allowing 11 earned runs in 4.1 innings of work.  D.J. Carrasco then came in for the final 2.2 innings and didn't allow a single run, so the team should be sure to send that video to Peavy.

Or at least just show Jake the video of Minnesota's Nick Blackburn, who worked seven shutout innings and looked a lot like the guy the Sox saw during their one-game playoff with the Twins last October.

As for the Sox offense, they had their opportunities early putting runners on base, but two gaffes by Scott Podsednik killed any momentum they might have gotten.  In the first inning Podsednik was picked off of first for the third straight game, though the Twins actually managed to throw him out this time.  Then in the third inning with the bases loaded and nobody out, Alexei Ramirez ripped a line drive right at Joe Crede, who caught the ball and easily doubled Podsednik off of first base.

Why or how Podsednik got halfway to second base on a ball hit that hard, with no outs, we'll never know.

Whatever happened at The Cell this afternoon, if Peavy did watch this game, Scott Linebrink's assessment that the odds of Peavy coming to the Sox are "50-50" are probably around 5-95 now.

Along with writing for NBCCHICAGO.com, Tom Fornelli can also be found contributing at FanHouse, SPORTSbyBROOKS, and his own Chicago sports blog Foul Balls.