Jon Garland took a shutout into the ninth inning and Tadahito Iguchi had a homer among his three hits and three RBIs, leading the Chicago White Sox past the Twins 6-3 Saturday.

That left Detroit needing one win in its last two games, or a loss Sunday by Minnesota, to clinch the AL Central. The Tigers, who were scheduled to host the Kansas City Royals later Saturday, won the season series with the Twins 11-8 and will win the division if the teams tie.

Michael Cuddyer's three-run homer in the ninth was the end for Garland, but a sellout crowd of 46,219, the biggest since the home opener, left disappointed. The attendance total gave Major League Baseball a single-season record for the third straight year.

Garland (18-7) gave up six hits, three runs and no walks while striking out four in 8 1-3 innings. He got plenty of help with 14 hits, one by every starter except Brian Anderson as Chicago batted around in a four-run third against rookie Matt Garza (3-6).

After a terrible first 2{ months, Garland found his groove and wound up with a 3.41 ERA in the second half. He matched his victory total from last season.

Earlier this season, it seemed this three-game series would determine the wild card, if not the division. The defending World Series champions are only 33-40 after the all-star break, though, which led to their elimination earlier this week.

With a second straight victory here, the White Sox did ruin another important game for one of their rivals _ and improve their record to 90-71. This marked the first time they've won 90 or more games in consecutive seasons since 1963-65.

Because of the early start a day after a night game, Chicago sat six regulars _ Joe Crede, Jermaine Dye, Paul Konerko, A.J. Pierzynski, Jim Thome and Juan Uribe _ who have a staggering 188 homers between them.

For the same reason, Minnesota's Joe Mauer was given a rest, which also preserved his league-leading average at .346. New York's Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter were four and five points behind him when the day began, the only challengers between Mauer and the first batting title won by a catcher in AL history.

The Sox subs didn't let up on Garza, who is being considered for the fourth spot in the postseason rotation.

After stranding runners at second and third in each of the first two innings, Garza got hammered in the third. Ross Gload doubled, Josh Fields walked, Rob Mackowiak doubled in a run, Iguchi singled in two and Alex Cintron singled before Ryan Sweeney's RBI groundout.

Garza lasted only 2 2-3 innings, surrendering eight hits, four runs and two walks. He struck out three.

Matt Guerrier gave up an RBI single to Sweeney in the fifth and a towering solo shot to Iguchi in the seventh.

The 11:10 a.m. local start time was assigned to give Metrodome workers time to configure the field and lower-level seats for a college football game between Minnesota sixth-ranked Michigan at 7 p.m.

Garland made sure there was no conflict, mowing through the Twins' lineup and allowing only two runners past first base. Jason Tyner started the sixth inning with a single, moved up on bunts by Jason Bartlett and Nick Punto but was stuck there when Luis Rodriguez struck out.

Notes: Rodriguez again played second base for Luis Castillo, who has missed the last four games with a sore knee. ... Home plate umpire and crew chief Jerry Crawford left the game briefly because of a back problem, but he came back and called third base. ... The White Sox lead the majors in batting with runners in scoring position, at .308 entering the game.