White Sox Enter Final 20 Games With Everything at Stake
With a first-round bye, an AL Central title and even their postseason fate hanging in the balance, the White Sox must treat their final 20 games like the playoffs.
Video Transcript
20 games remain on the regular season schedule for the Chicago White Sox, and there's still a lot up in the air, a lot riding on these final 20 games.
The playoff race, the division, the number two seed, it could all come down to the wire.
Coming into play on Sunday before a Sunday night baseball match-up with the Minnesota Twins, the White Sox have a two-and-a-half game lead over the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central, their lead over the Houston Astros, one and a half games, that for the number two seed in the American League, and that two seed almost as important as the division, because the difference between the two seed and the three seed is the wildcard series or a chance to go straight to the ALDS with home field advantage in the division series.
Big, big difference.
Cleveland also tied at seventy-two and seventy-one with the Toronto Blue Jays entering play on Sunday, which means the final wildcard spot is up in the air.
The White Sox are not even guaranteed a playoff spot right now if they can't finish these last 20 games strong.
But that being said, your fate is still in your hands if you're the White Sox.
And when you really break down the numbers, taking care of business means the White Sox can basically put all of this away.
Over the last 20 games, should the White Sox go twelve and eight, Cleveland would need to go fifteen and four over their final 19 games just to catch Chicago.
That also comes with the contingency that the White Sox do get the tiebreaker over the Guardians.
In order to do that, they just can't get swept when they go to Cleveland later this month.
Three game series, you win one, and you secure the season series advantage and the tiebreaker over Cleveland.
Houston, yes, a bit more worrisome.
They're seventy-three and seventy, one and a half games behind Chicago, and they hold the tiebreaker over the White Sox.
But even so, a twelve and eight finish means the Astros have to go thirteen and six over their last 19 games to pass you, and they have an upcoming series with the Phillies, the Rays.
It's a much more difficult schedule for the Astros than it is for the White Sox.
All of this is to say, you control your own destiny, but it is no longer okay to be content with mediocrity.
Going ten and ten over these final 20 games may not get it done.
Ultimately, the difference of only one or two games could determine whether the White Sox earn a first round bye or miss the playoffs entirely.
So manage, play these games like they are playoff games.
You don't have to play perfect baseball the rest of the way, but you do have to take advantage of leads, of good outings from your starting pitching, and of opportunities to gain ground at every turn
