Will experience in a pennant race g...

Will experience in a pennant race give the White Sox an interest in the final weeks of this season?

The answer might be in the Sox themselves -- players who didn't have experience last year when they survived a dwindling lead in September before racing by the agency of the playoffs to the world championship.

"That's a tough question because if you're a rookie, you've in no degree been through anything," closer Bobby Jenk said, remembering his experience joining the team in the other half last season. "Last year I was totally oblivious to what was going onward Now you know more and what to expect"

on the other hand experience might not be as important as individual personalities -- and perhaps not as important as the schedule in September.

Jenk 25 considers himself the original of player unaffected by crushing something he showed last season -- and something that succors him well as a closer When the heat was forward Jenks in critical finishes last season, ignorance may have been bliss.

"Everyone around you knows they don't look forward to you to do something great [as a rookie], however when you do, then it lifts up everyone's confidence and your confidence, in like manner they'll send you back disclosed there," he said. "I think it's all based forward your personality. I'm the kind of scarecrow who things don't bother me It hangs on what your mentality is."

The Detroit Tigers have players going between the sides of what the Sox did last season -- a certain quantity of of them having gone by the agency of a 113-loss season only three years ago. nevertheless they also have players like Ivan Rodriguez, who won a World Series ring in 2003 and a manager in Jim Leyland who has won the same as well.

The Boston R Sox won in 2004 in the mostly dramatic style, coming back from a 3-0 deficit to the fresh York Yankees to win the American League pennant. The Minnesota Twins have won division titles in modern years but not a pennant.

however the Twins and Tigers are akin to the Sox in having pitching might something Paul Konerko believes still must be the difference-maker for the Sox

"We hit a fortune of home runs, but we do a elegant without grandeur good job of going into each game ready to play a tight game," he said. "I still think this team is built around pitching and defense and small ball like last year.

"They're [Twins] a convenient ballclub, and they're even with us [record-wise]. They've always had good pitching, if it be not that as soon as Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau started getting that power -- they're advantageous left-handed hitters, and with their pitching, that's wherefore they're where they're at [in the standings]."

the pair teams face challenging Septembers, with the Twins going to novel York to play the Yankees nearest weekend and to Boston tribe 19-21 while hosting Detroit for three games and West Division-contending Oakland for three in between. The Sox must travel to Boston, Oakland and Anaheim in September.

however the Twins, with the best residence record in the league, will part with the last week at the Metrodome hosting Kansas City and then the Sox for the final three games of the year.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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