Would you rather be a Cubs fan or a White Sox fan right now? The downside to being a Cub fan, as it usually is this time of year, is that your team is out of it. The upside, in this little comparison, is that you can sit back, relax, utter the favorite phrase “Wait ’til next year!”, and then you can settle down and watch some football.
White Sox fans can rightfully note that their team leads their division with 10 games left. But on the dark, imperial side, what was once a 15 game lead on August 1st has shrivelled like a grape on a Phoenix sidewalk in July to 1.5 games over the Cleveland Indians. Last night, despite a stellar pitching performance by Brandon McCarthy, well, I’ll let Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune say it:
McCarthy matched 2004 American League Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana for eight innings, but the Sox soiled his performance in a 4-1 loss to Minnesota in 11 innings that put their division hopes in peril with 10 games left.
Ew. Rick Morrissey has some other thoughts:
If you believe what the White Sox manager told Copley News Service columnist Mike Nadel the other day, he might just up and retire if the Sox win the World Series this year. The way things are going for the South Siders, the qualifier seems a tad out there. It’s like starting a sentence, “If Paris Hilton becomes a nun…”
The Sox have three more games against the punchless but over-0.500 Twins and then four against the Detroit Tigers. The Indians have 3 games against the worst team in the majors, the Kansas City Royals, who have already lost 100 games, and then a three game series with the second-worst team in the American League, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Advantage Indians.
That sets up a three game series in Cleveland between the Indians and the White Sox. Who woulda thunk back in early August that that series would be meaningful for both teams?
