Not that there’s any good time to play the National League Central, featuring the best team in baseball in the Milwaukee Brewers as well as the second-best second-place team in baseball. And as the White Sox have found, third- and fourth-place Pittsburgh and St. Louis — essentially equals of the White Sox, give or take — are no picnic.
While I’m not gonna indulge some of the sad sacking of the White Sox fan base at the moment [Note: Save for recap in case of the White Sox getting routed.], it’s never
fun when you lose eight of 11 in September — particularly when you started your slump in first place.
But here’s the thing: The White Sox remain in first place. With the Guardians trailing the Twins in the eighth inning, 4-3, there’s a fair chance our guys remain in first place for at least one more day, win or lose. And it’s worth reminding that this is not the Guardians team of a year ago, who won like 20-of-23 to end the season and embarrassed a good Detroit Tigers team in the process; Cleveland has gone 5-5 in their last 10!
That said, the White Sox can’t afford the three wins in their last 10, as their two-month first-place lead was never that robust.
We’ll see how it plays out. My fandom was nearly murdered over these past four seasons, but I’m still here. I’m glad you are, too.
It’s a wild, but welcomed, drop of the Montgomerys to the bottom of the lineup. Frankly, Braden offers little or nothing to the team right now. Still not so little as to make it desirable to have Tommy Pham replacing him, but what little value he provided to the team is evaporating rapidly toward replacement level. Colson, for his part, got some powder-his-ass treatment from MLB.com today; we all want him to be great, but this year great he has not been. Give me Miguel Vargas busting his hiney to flop across the tarp in a desperate try at a foul pop any day of the week.
Sean Newcomb opens for the White Sox, presumably yielding to Luis Castillo as a bulk arm. But at this point with the White Sox, anyone in the pen who appears alive is viable to see action.
It’s a 6:15 p.m. CT game, usual broadcast suspects (see above). Let’s get back to 1 ½ over the goofy Guards tonight!
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
- New, improved notifications system!
Download the SB Nation app on iOS or Android.
