After 155 games of grueling competition in the American League Central, it all comes down to this. On Tuesday, the Minnesota Twins will host the Chicago White Sox in the Metrodome for a 3-game series that can decide who will be heading to the playoffs in October, and who will be heading home.

The Twins trail the Sox by 2.5 games, 3 in the loss column with only a week left in the season.

The starting pitchers for the first game will be Scott Baker and Javier Vazquez, who received some extra “encouragement” from his eccentric manager and former White Sox shortstop, Ozzie Guillen in the Chicago Sun-Times:

‘’He hasn’t been [a big-game pitcher], that’s the bottom line… What you see is what you get, Javy is going to be Javy. I just want him to be aggressive, throw the ball over the plate and knock somebody on their [butt]. That’s a big three games for us… You have to be mean. Go out there and show them we show up to play, show up to kick your guys’ [butts]. And believe me, that will take care of itself.’’

Despite having tremendous talent, Vazquez’ career record is at exactly .500 and he has a reputation for faltering during huge games. In his last start, Vazquez gave up 6 runs and 4 walks to the Yankees in less than 4 innings. Late in August while facing the Red Sox, he surrendered 10 hits and 5 runs.

However, in responding to his manager’s statement, the pitcher appeared to not be concerned about his performance:

“You know what? It’s not going to [change a lot of opinions] because I’m really the type of guy that when I retire, I’m going to be home in Puerto Rico with my family. I’m not looking to have to change minds if people feel that way...”

Javier Vazquez can go a long way towards proving he’s a big-time pitcher with a win against Baker. As for Ozzie Guillen, there is no word yet whether anyone listens to what he says anymore.