Playoff race, Dunn, Gellinger

In order to survive the September stretch run, you're going to have to expect the unexpected. After sweeping the White Sox over the weekend and pulling into a first-place tie in the AL Central, the Tigers went out and lost to the Indians at home Monday afternoon. Yes, they are the same Indians that were 6-29 since July 26. Truth be told, the Sox weren't exactly glued to the clubhouse TV screens Monday afternoon as they prepared to take batting practice before playing the Twins tonight at U.S. Cellular Field. Many of the players glanced up every now and then, but they were out on the field before the game ended. Later, manager Robin Ventura said he didn't even know the Tigers lost, and Paul Konerko said it doesn't really matter. "Just one day at a time," Konerko said. "We've got Minnesota tonight. We had Detroit this weekend. We could have controlled them this weekend and we didn't do it. Now we have to assume they're going to play well and we have to take care of our business. "However many games left is kind of irrelevant. It's all about playing one game and then moving on to the next one. You can't get to the end until you play all the rest of them. So we're just going to do not even one game at a time, one inning at a time. It's grueling and it's tough, but that's the way we have to do it. I think we will." -We're about an hour away from first pitch, and Adam Dunn is still in the Sox' lineup. Dunn missed the past two games with a strained right oblique, but he didn't appear to be in much pain as he took batting practice. Unless he was feeling something after b.p., Dunn should be good to go. The White Sox' designated hitter/first baseman said he was feeling much better Sunday. "Yesterday, getting out of bed wasn't that hard," Dunn said. "Bending over, putting socks on, lots of stupid stuff, things like that were a lot better. We'll see what happens." -Assistant hitting coach Mike Gellinger is back at his southwest suburban home after blacking out in his hotel room in Baltimore last week. Gellinger apparently injured his neck in the fall. “Hopefully he'll be back in a while,” manager Robin Ventura said. “But he has something wrong with his neck that he has to get taken care of.” Gellinger graduated from Fremd High School in 1982. His father, Terry Gellinger, was Fremd's baseball coach for 30 years and guided the Vikings to the state tournament in 1979 and '84. In 1997, he was voted into the IHSA Hall of Fame.