(See previous blog entries for Parts 1 and 2)
On July 6th, the team was 57-26. Again, the talk began – “If they go .500 the rest of the season, they’ll win 96 games. They should EASILY win the central with 96 wins.” Little did I know… that’s pretty close to what was going to happen.
A team that began the season winning series after series, started to get more streaky. They were swept by the A’s just before the All-Star break. Then, suddenly, they came out hot again, winning 5 straight. I kept getting the question, “Do you think they’re going to win the division?” While the answer was, “Yes”, there was something still bothering me. I didn’t feel like they were beating good teams. When I looked at the schedule, I saw why. They had a stretch from August 8th – August 25th where the only 3 teams that they would play were the Yankees, Red Sox and Twins. My more complete answer was, “If they can play well during that stretch, they’re for real”. They began that stretch by winning 2 of 3 against the Yankees in New York. And in typical fashion, each of those 3 games was decided by one run. A 3-2 loss and two victories of 2-1. Then, the wheels seemed to start coming off. They were swept by Boston. Swept by the Twins. And lost two straight to the Yankees. Seven straight losses, including the last five at home. Still, they were 74-46 on August 20th, only 9 wins shy of last year’s total. They were still bound to make the playoffs. But you hate to be that team with no momentum. You don’t want to be that team that limps to the finish line.
The White Sox entered September at 80-51. 29 games over .500. Now for all of the talk about “choking”, they finished the season at 99-63. 36 games over .500. They improved 7 games between August 31st and the end of the season. They weren’t choking. Cleveland was just playing tremendous baseball. And the Tribe nearly made it. Too bad for them, though, that the White Sox were just starting to get hot. They were getting hot at the right time, including a 3 game set at Jacobs Field to close out the season and to close out Cleveland’s hopes of a wildcard birth. The Sox won the last five games of the regular season. Joe Crede had rested his herniated disks in his back. Scott Podsednik was starting to run again. Bobby Jenks was learning some control and earning the confidence of manager Ozzie Guillen. Ozzie was never worried about “choking”. And if he wasn’t worried, neither were his boys. He had a plan all along. They weren’t choking. They were trying different players. They were working on team chemistry. They were figuring out what worked and what didn’t. They were resting themselves just enough for one final push. They were getting ready for the big time. That was Ozzie’s plan all along. And they just seemed to put it together a week before the playoffs began.
--- To be continued ---
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