(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
On Wednesday night the Chicago White Sox did something that they have only done one other time in 2009: complete a sweep. With a 6-2 victory over the hapless Cleveland Indians, led by another stellar outing from Jose Contreras, the much maligned White Sox of ‘09 moved to 40-38, tied with the Minnesota Piranhas at 3.0 games behind the Detroit Tigers.
The White Sox only other sweep of the season came at the end of May when the Good Guys swept three on the road against the Kansas City Royals. And as KVB and I lament to eachother all of the time, the White Sox never seem to complete sweeps.
It always seems like any time we take the first two or three games of a series there is a letdown in the final game. Either the regular lineup sleepwalks through the game, we get a terrible pitching performance, or Ozzie throws out one of his crazy lineups where Brian Anderson is hitting cleanup.
I’m exaggerating…but not by much.
Not yesterday though. Last night, the White Sox continued playing the solid brand of baseball that has propelled them to five straight wins and 12 wins in their last 17 games. Over that same time span, a fan base—and maybe even a team and an entire organization—has been reborn into one that expects, rather than hopes, to be playing baseball in October.
At least that’s how I feel. And hopefully the rest of the South Side is with me (and if you’re not, I have a few words from Steve Perry I’d like to share with you. That’s right, I went there).
Truthfully, what has transpired over the last couple of weeks has renewed my faith that the White Sox will ultimately come out on top in a very competitive AL Central. I have to admit that through the ups and downs of this season it has been hard to maintain that faith.
Case in point: Ozzie saying that we are in trouble if we have to bring up Gordon Beckham…and then shortly thereafter Beckham gets brought up.
And yes, I realize that the majority of the recent success has come against the inferior National League (and then the even more inferior Indians), so I will grant you that the White Sox haven’t exactly been mowing down the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays; but, the Brewers, Cubs, Dodgers, and Reds are all at least decent teams (especially LA, with our without Manny) so I don’t think you can simply chalk up the White Sox success to playing subpar competition.
No, there are many reasons why the White Sox are winning and the majority of them have to do with the players themselves and the better brand of baseball they are playing.
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