Chicago White Sox Morning BP: Team won’t crumble
Whenever it seems the 2015 Chicago White Sox are out of postseason hunt they come back with a winning streak, including four consecutive wins in a road series sweep of the Cleveland Indians this weekend.
The White Sox sit in fourth in the AL Central, but are now back to being 5.0 games back of the second AL Wild Card spot, which is currently held by the Minnesota Twins, who are second in the division.
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Having a 46-50 overall record, the White Sox have six teams in front of them for that aforementioned second Wild Card spot, so the goal of gaining that spot is attainable. Here is the current AL Wild Card standings before games played Monday:
Houston (55-45) +2
Minnesota (52-46) 0
Toronto Blue Jays (50-50) -3.0
Baltimore Orioles (48-49) -3.5
Tampa Bay Rays (49-51) -4.0
Detroit Tigers (48-50) -4.0
Texas Rangers (47-50) -4.5
Chicago White Sox (46-50) -5.0
Four teams are 6.5 or more games behind in the AL Wild Card race.
After losing three of four games to the Kansas City Royals and two straight to the St. Louis Cardinals to start play after the All-Star break, this weekend happened with four consecutive wins. Next the White Sox have a four-game series with the Boston Red Sox who are last in the AL East at 44-55 and have struggled most of the season like the White Sox.
Who knows what to expect from this series? Will the White Sox team that showed up against the Indians be the team playing at Fenway Park the next four games, or will it be a White Sox team that played against the Royals and Cardinals?
The hope for White Sox fans is the same team from the Indians’ series keeps showing up in this Red Sox series. Also remember the White Sox had momentum going for them before the All-Star break when they won 9-of-12 games.
I’m leaning towards the team that played the Indians is the team we’ll see this week, for the fact the Red Sox aren’t the caliber of team that the Royals and Cardinals are, but resemble the Indians more this year.
The White Sox should be able to compete for the next four games, and from there we’ll see where they stand.
What is worrisome with this ball club is what I have been saying all season, and what you know we’ve all witnessed all season and that is consistency in the winning column. It seems every single time the White Sox win a few games in a row they come back with an equal or even more losses in a row, making the winning streak a mute point.
What can help the White Sox this week is a very good series against the Red Sox and the Twins not playing so well against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed with a series against the Seattle Mariners.
Since this is the final week of July, the series against the Red Sox will likely decide once and for all if the “Good Guys” are buyers or sellers.
WHITE SOX HEADLINES:
• CBS Sports previewed the White Sox vs. Red Sox series.
• Alexei Ramirez rebounding defensively, makes two nice plays vs. Tribe: By David Just of the Chicago Sun-Times.
• Rongey: Pitching has not been the problem for Chicago White Sox: By Chris Rongey of the Daily Herald.
• Limiting free passes key to White Sox run: By Scott Merkin of WhiteSox.com.
Next: Minors: Tim Anderson needs a promotion