After an off day to rest up, the Chicago White Sox are about to begin a stretch of games that they really need to win. They are 6-9 after losing their last seven games of the season. After starting 6-2, they lost a series finale to the Tampa Bay Rays and then were swept by both the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins.
This team’s biggest flaw is its injury bug and it doesn’t help that they have a manager that is asleep at the wheel half of the time. Tony La Russa used to have the best “feel for the game” in the league but has since seemed to lose it.
With all of that in mind, all you have to do to see the light is look up and down the roster when it is mostly healthy. There are studs all over the place. Everyone on this team can provide something good enough to win a World Series championship.
They do, however, need to get some things straightened out on both offense and defense. The pitching has been mostly good which is a good sign because that is what made them so elite in 2021. It will help that they have some very winnable games on the horizon.
The Chicago White Sox needs to dominate over the next couple of weeks.
Now, this is Major League Baseball so every team is good enough to win any single game. The White Sox need to play at their best in every single one of these games in order to win. It is probably okay to infer that their best is better than these team’s best but they need to prove it.
It starts on Tuesday with a three-game series with the 5-9 Kansas City Royals. The White Sox will run Dallas Keuchel, Dylan Cease, and Michael Kopech out there in those three games so you can infer how each one will go based on that.
However, the White Sox will be facing some less than stellar pitchers as well. They should be able to have a good day against Daniel Lynch (a lefty) who will face Keuchel so you never know how that game goes. Zack Greinke will face Cease and White Sox fan favorite Brad Keller will face Kopech.
Following that series is a four-game set with the Los Angeles Angels and then two with the Chicago Cubs. Neither of those teams is projected to be very good either so the White Sox need to really bring their best.
The White Sox got ripped on for being dominant against bad teams in 2021 but it is better than the alternative. You can get yourself into good habits and gain confidence in games like this if you handle it the right way.
It would really be nice to see the White Sox come out of this stretch over .500. We will learn a lot about them and their structural makeup by the time these three series are over. After that, it is back to playing really good teams like the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Guardians, and New York Yankees. The White Sox need to be stronger going into those to have a chance.