That's neither here nor there now, as my focus has shifted to how the White Sox have risen from the ashes all the way to first place at the All-Star Break. On June 8 the Sox were 24-33 9.5 games out of first place. After that, the Sox have gone 25-5 including winning their last 8 straight games. It's also worth noting just how fitting it is that on June 9th they beat the Tigers by scoring 15 runs. After today's win which qualified them for first place, they also scored 15 runs including a 3 run bomb by Andruw Jones for his 400th career home run. "Turnaround" isn't a strong enough word. The Sox were dead in the water in the view of this observer as well as many others, and I fully admit to calling for a blowup several times this season. Even though I'm still not sure about Kenny Williams being with the team after this season, we're all eating our words now, as the White Sox have entered the discussion of post season possibilities.
In terms of franchise history, the comparison that keeps coming up is the 1983 White Sox. The 83 team's biggest deficit was 7 games out of first place however, versus the 9.5 games the 2010 team was. In terms of who's been the biggest difference maker? You could argue Omar Vizquel's defense, and Freddy Garcia's cunning and guile approach on the mound as two big culprits. You could also point to the steady outstanding play of Alex Rios - who is someone else I owe an engraved apology to, and Paul Konerko. You could point to the emergence of young players like Dayan "The Tank" Viciedo and Brent Lillibridge hitting the ball hard every time as well as Sergio Santos' outstanding relief work during his feel good story season. Those are all outstanding nominations, but for my money I believe the biggest difference maker has been Carlos Quentin. Carlos was hitting .205 7 home runs, 32 RBI's for an OPS of .697 as of June 8. Since that time, he's hit .326 12 home runs, 29 RBI's over the month since. I don't believe that it's a coincidence that since he's gone on a roll, the White Sox have as well.
What's even more remarkable about this roll they've been on, is the Sox don't even seem to be rattled by the news of Jake Peavy and his detached Lat Muscle being out for the year. They trotted out Daniel Hudson today - who I don't believe is a starting pitcher at the big league level- watched him get roughed up by the Royals, and still won in a blowout. The Sox still need another starter in the rotation, and their options of acquiring a pitcher via trade are very limited - even though I don't think they realistically had a shot at getting Cliff Lee. The beauty about being a roll like this, allows them to not really have to worry about it for now.
So cheers to the White Sox during this roller coaster of a first half of the season. Are they for real or not? I think they are. I want to dismiss this as "baseball magic" but I can't. Nobody is THIS lucky in baseball. You have to have some skills that are better than most teams in baseball to go on these types of multiple winning streaks they've had in this short amount of time. The Sox will be tested right out of the shoot with four straight at the Twins after the All-Star Break in Target Field. They've answered every challenge thus far. It will be fun to see if this unreal play continues. One thing that's for sure, it's going to make for great television when "The Club" makes it's debut on MLB Network.
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