Nick Swisher has left the building, Sox fans.

A stop-and-go offensive performance that led to a hook from the everyday lineup created a rift between ‘Swish’ and Ozzie Guillen that neither side appeared willing to patch up. Coupled with the fact that the two positions Swisher plays - first base and centerfield - are occupied by either a high-priced veteran or being competed for by younger, faster players, and he’s on his way to the New York Yankees as the proverbial odd-man-out.

Swisher didn’t endear himself to his manager as he moped in the clubhouse during a second-half freefall that saw him hit just .191 after the All-Star break. Whether that created a bad atmosphere in the Sox clubhouse is impossible to say, so let’s just assume that all things being equal, the trade was made because the Sox figured they could do better. But why sell so low? In exchange for a guy who they valued at two high-ceiling prospects (Ryan Sweeney & Gio Gonzalez) they acquired the sequel to Juan Uribe, Wilson Betemit, and a pair of low-rent minor league pitchers.

As a fan it’s hard to know what I should think of this trade because I’ve always been trying to take Kenny’s opening moves of the offseason as a read on what to expect from him as we move towards the winter meetings. Last year’s November acquistion of Orlando Cabrera signaled his desire for stronger top-of-the-lineup hitting and defense on the left side, perfectly inline with his 72-90 team’s deficiency. But right now, between dealing Swisher essentially for spare parts one year after getting him in exchange for vital engine materials and once again signing a hot Cuban prospect at third base, I’m not sure if even Kenny knows what kind of team he needs to put together in the wake of a 89-win championship season.

How did they do that?

No, seriously, I want an explanation. How the f&*k did they just do that?

Three straight elimination games. Three different opponents. A clubhouse seemingly divided against itself with a manger who can’t even really be accused of running the asylum since he’s basically one of the inmates. A team that managed to cough up a 2.5 game lead with six to play. A team that couldn’t beat a pair of tomato can pitchers thrown out by the Cleveland Indians Friday and Saturday. A team without it’s best hitter, best third baseman, pitching a young lefthander on short rest for the first time in his career.

A team that’s going to the playoffs. Your 2008 AL Central Champions, against all the odds…

Bring on Tampa.

Let’s address Irrational Fear #1 right off the bat: everybody breathe. The sun is going to come up tomorrow.

As for the rest of the 2008 AL Central Race, let’s just say the shocking third-act twist has occurred and only if the writer’s are REALLY bold and decide to pen another will the suspense last.

Call me a liar if you must, but the worst I ever felt during this series was actually AFTER the Sox had gotten a 6-1 lead. I couldn’t help but surrender to those thoughts in the deep, dark, nagging corner of my brain that remember all the pain and heartache already inflicted on the Sox over the past seven years inside the Metrodome. I couldn’t put to bed the horrifying thought: “This is what Minnesota does. They lull things down, they spot you runs, but they just nibble and gnaw and scrap and don’t ever go away.” What happpened next? Well, you can read about it here if you like doing the sports equivalent of stabbing out your own eyes while simultaneously punching yourself in the nuts repeatedly.

I wish I could boil it down to something simple, something plain and quantifiable like, “The Twins just have an incredible lineup” or “The Sox have a horrible bullpen” and just leave it at that. But the Twins should’ve rolled in that type of circumstance; instead the combined score over the last two days was 10-8 as the Twins continued to race their way around the HHH basepaths (and got a couple of timely assists from second and third base umpire Alfonso Marquez). And if it were the kind of performance that came from nowhere, from a team clinging desperately to its playoff chances, I could live with that. But this happens routinely, always to the Sox and always at the Metrodome. Of the 8 games the Sox lost in that building this year, five were by two runs or less. Three times, including tonight, they blew leads of four runs or more. Bottom line: if it’s close against the Twins in their home park, pray for the worst, but expect the absolutely f&*kin’ disastrous.

Umpiring Sidenote: I do not subscribe to the theory that any officiating decision can single-handedly change the outcome of a ballgame, no matter how egregious or influential it might seem (Doug Eddings included). So don’t just cop-out and assume a different final outcome (no matter how badly you want to) had Marquez made the correct call on Wednesday and called Carlos Gomez out at second base on the pickoff throw, which is what he was - out. Picked off. Orlando Cabrera had the ball in his glove and his glove on Gomez’s back well ahead of Gomez making any sort of physical contact with the base. Gomez was out. Instead he was called safe, moved up on a walk and scored what went on to be the decisive third run on a ground ball to second. But even if he’s called out, who’s to say Mark Buehrle, suddenly feeling more secure after picking a runner out of scoring position, doesn’t serve up a meatball which Joe Mauer clubs for a three-run homer? So I don’t blame Marquez for the Sox being beaten on Wednesday (or on Thursday, when he called a Denard Span double fair despite the ball landing in foul territory, or when he rung up Nick Swisher for swinging when he quite clearly did not…that latter call was so bad even Twins announcer Bert Blyleven called bulls&*t on it.) Even umpiring that’s bad can’t unilateraly determine how the game plays out. That doesn’t change the fact that Marquez was wrong. Moving on…

The Sox only recourse now is to win the remaining games. They have to pretend Minnesota and it’s Chinese Water Torture offense don’t exist for the next four days. Everything has to be about beating Cleveland tonight, then again on Saturday, then on Sunday. Then, if necessary, 100% focus must turn to beating Detroit on Monday. And, should it come to pass, on Tuesday, they can allow Minnesota to exist again for a possible one-game playoff. If you had to gauge my feelings on the Sox making the postseason…what’s the polar opposite of optimism? Pessimism just doesn’t quite seem to do the trick.

Clayton Richard. Well, at least for tonight.

There was wild speculation who would be taking the mound tonight. There were a few murmurs about Aaron Poreda and his blazing fastball, but he is still in AA and has yet to master a secondary pitch. Lance Broadway was optioned to Charlotte for bullpen help in Oakland and could not be recalled until 10 days had passed. Ozzie decided Clayton would be the man, though he hardly gave him a ringing endorsement: “Richard. That’s it. Don’t ask me why. Richard,” Guillen said. “Richard’s the pitcher [Tuesday], and hopefully this time he does better.”

He had shown promise in previous starts, but was hit hard the second and third time through the order. Opposing batters were hitting .346 their second look and an astronomical .667 the third time. Clayton backed up that solid inning of work in Oakland, Sunday with a huge performance tonight. Matched up against a future CY Young candidate in Felix Hernandez, the rookie had his work cut out for him and he answered the bell. The Mariners put the heat on early with a single by Cairo after Ichiro reached on Clayton’s throwing error, but he worked his way out of trouble. Swisher picked up his young pitcher with a great on a hard grounder to first, stepping on the bag and fired home to beat Ichiro for a double play. He worked a 1-2-3 second and the offense would give him the only run he would need when Griffey hit a sac fly to score Thome, who led off the inning with a double. Richard was not spectacular, but he showed good life on his fastball on his way to six shutout innings and his first Major League win.

What does that mean for the 5th starter spot from here on out? Maybe nothing as the Sox have the next three Thursdays off that could allow Ozzie to skip this spot in the rotation in the upcoming weeks. Even if we have to use a five man rotation Broadway and Richard have not done anything recall the nightmare of the 5th starter of years passed. There will be no Arnie Munoz or Felix Diaz taking the ball and sending Sox fans running for cover. Lance Broadway battled his way to a win last time out and did not take his demotion to heart as he won in Charlotte tonight behind five strikeouts in 6.2 innings.

The Sox remain in first place and look like they may be playing their best baseball of the season. If not for a bullpen collapse in Oakland in the first game of the season, they would be riding an 8 game winning streak. They extend their high water mark to 19 games above five hundred and maintain their one game lead in the division. It is encouraging to see the offense keep hitting the ball hard coming home from Oakland avoid scoring droughts that plagued the lineup earlier this season following high scoring games. Swisher especially, who has homered in back to back nights.

As the Sox welcome in the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend, the Twins head out on a fourteen game road trip, with the first eleven on the west coast. The division could very well be decided in the next three weeks as for the first time all season, it seems like the offense and rotation are hot at the same time.

If you love scoreboard watching, wild swings in momentum, the essence of Jim McKay’s “thrill of victory and agony of defeat”, then we here in the AL Central say, “Have we got a division for you!”

In the trailer for what will hopefully be another solid Coen Brothers comedy, Burn After Reading, JK Simmons (Hollywood’s go-to “gruff yet clueless authority figure” actor) instructs his CIA charges: “We don’t really know what anyone is after…report back to me when it…I don’t know…when it makes sense.” That’s how I feel in attempting to recap all the various angles that were in play Tuesday night in two ballparks for two teams that seemed headed in completely opposite directions just 48 hours ago. Now they’re back on the parallel track which is probably going to take them all the way to Game 162 with the issue still in doubt.

One of the key themes for the Sox up to this point in 2008 has been a failure to seal the deal during close, back-and-forth games, the kind of tightly-contested games you have to win the lion’s share of in order to be a championship club. They’ve been miserable at doing so on the road, with three of their last six performances outside Chicago perfectly demonstrating how and why there should be no expectation of an easy cruise to the division title. Then there was the fracas that broke out in Sunday afternoon’s lost cause of a game versus Kansas City, a game where every member of the Sox seemed to retreat with the exception of Ozzie Guillen, who got served his inevitable (and not open to appeal) suspension for post-game honesty.

So that brings us to Tuesday night. On an impossibly muggy evening after two days of constant rain and lightning storms in the thick of summer, Sox starter Gavin Floyd didn’t have the comfort zone he took into his last start at Minnesota, walking Curtis Granderson and throwing a homer to Placido Polanco before recording an out. Down 2-1 in the fifth Floyd lost his control for good, and when the inning ended Detroit led 6-1. Little did we know that the “fun”, such as it was, hadn’t even really started at that point.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest, Scott Baker was running into trouble in the form of Raul Ibanez, who has been to the Twins staff in the first two games of that Seattle series was Justin Morneau was to the Sox last week. At 6-1 Tigers and 4-2 Mariners, with Detroit having broken into an incredibly shaky bullpen by the fifth inning, you’re just hoping both scores hold so no ground is lost in the divisional race.

That’s when Paul Konerko steps up and finally demonstrates how to drill a pitch from Nate Robertson, who’s been nothing short of dreadful against every other team in the league but was on his way to a third-straight dominating effort against the Sox. 6-4. With the Mariners having stretched their lead to 6-3 and threating to add more in the sixth, thoughts dangle that perhaps there’s a game to be gained here, if only you can reach that Tiger pen.

Carlos Quentin built the case for hope a little more with a long fly that scraped past the outfield wall. 6-5. One inning later Alexei Ramirez absolutely ropes one into the Sox bullpen. Tie game, and with Minnesota trying to come back out west, both games have turned into a battle of wills that could have long-lasting ramifications. The innings begin to fade away, one after the other, as that same unreliable Sox bullpen is mounting what might be looked back on as their last stand. Octavio Dotel had a Joba Chamberlin moment in the 10th after striking out Ryan Raburn - and speaking of impressions, right around that same moment 2000 miles away, when Seattle nearly had the game busted wide open, Carlos Gomez pulled his best Torii Hunter impersonation to keep the game within reach. Sparked by the flash of leather, the Twins put four on the board in the top of the eighth for a 7-6 lead. At this point I’ve stopped trying to do some internal divisonal standings math and wondering what’s transpired that these two games began two hours apart yet are on track to finish at the exact same time?

By now the Sox bullpen is drawing the line in the sand and marching bravely toward their doom. Surely it must have occurred to them after the 7th or 8th consecutive scoreless inning, at which point we’re in the 13th on the Southside and Joe Nathan has come in for a five-out save with two on in StarbucksTown; it’s a sad truth that no cavalry will be coming over the hill to save them. Right?

Sure seemed like it when Polanco finally broke the dam against Matt Thornton, who was into his fourth inning of work, with another two-run blast just inside the foul pole for an 8-6 lead. Now here comes Joel Zumaya, who’s been anointed the third Tigers closer in as many weeks, to save the game, help Detroit claw back into the divisional race, and put an exclaimation point on the last three dismal weeks for the Sox.

At least it won’t come at great expense, I think, as I click over with MLB Gameday to see Jose Lopez touched Joe Nathan for double and the M’s are up 8-7. Maybe there’s a little magic left here.

Cabrera singles, Quentin shoots one down the line to put runners at 2nd & 3rd. A cue-ball shot from Jermine Dye rolls towards Edgar Renteria. A run’s gonna score, but there will be two out because Renteria makes this play in his sleep.

Only he doesn’t. It glances off his glove and it’s 8-7 with two-on, one-out. Zumaya overpowers Jim Thome and the last line of defense is Nick Swisher, a guy with many of the same holes in his swing that the aging Big Jim has.

At this point I’ve just sorta surrendered to the lunacy of it all and find myself like Gene Wilder while watching Augustus Gloop get sucked into the chocolate river: “The suspense is terrifying! I hope it lasts!” Which it will, because another quick check shows Justin Morneau is on base with Jason Kubel, already having hit two home runs tonight, due up.

2-1 count on Swisher. Then a high, arching drive into the deepest part of the field. Can The Ballpark Formerly Known as Comiskey hold it? And the whisper comes back, “No”. 10-8 victory.

But wait, there’s more! Putz now is working with the bases loaded and Mike Redmond at the dish while protecting the slimmest of margins. If this were a Sox game, you know Redmond would just do what he always does, swing like a Little Leaguer yet somehow make contact with the ball and send a little grenade into center that falls into the 18-inch zone where neither the second baseman, shortstop, or center fielder have a chance to catch it. But this is Seattle so he lines one to Ichiro to end the game.

Maybe in a few days or weeks both teams will look back on tonight and the outcomes of the respective see-saw affairs as one of “those” moments. But if the Sox drop four of the next five while the Twins take four of five, does it really amound to much? Who can know what’s going to happen day by day around here? All I can say with confidence is that literally everything about tonight’s game countered the notion that the Sox are too lacksaidaiscal to match the high-energy Twins in the race for this Theater of the Absurd known as the AL Central. That was the definition of fighting back out on the field tonight.