By Woodrow Carroll
It may not rank as the quickest comeback in Chicago White Sox history, yet, what the White Sox did in their final two games against the Houston Astros Saturday and Sunday, 10-1 and 4-0 victories, certainly made with the team and fans rejoice and heave a sign of relief.
Friday night the White Sox took on the visiting Astros and were roughed up, 7-1. Houston was out to make life miserable for the Sox again after capturing four straight games in June.
The Sox, with the best won-loss record in the Major League Baseball in June lost four straight games in Houston.
By the time the Astros arrived in Chicago Friday, the Sox appeared on the road to recovery. After capturing five straight games, the Sox were ready for the Astros, however, then came the 7-1 Astros’ victory Friday.
In the American League, the White Sox in the Central, the Red Sox in the AL East, and the Astros in the AL West, have been the divisional standard bearers for most of the season. Houston, with five victories in five meetings with the Sox following Friday’s game, owed much of its success to its dominance of the Sox.
Enough is enough may have been the White Sox thinking entering into Saturday’s game with visiting Houston.
The Sox pummeled the Astros, 10-1, Saturday with the Astros’ lone run coming after the Sox had built up a 10-run lead. A nine-inning complete game by pitcher Lucas Giolito of the Sox and a three-run home run by Jose Abreu were the one-sided comeback high points.
In more good news Sunday, the Sox beat the Astros, 4-0, to give the Sox the series advantage, two-games-to-one, just after Friday’s defeat..
If Giolito was good Saturday night, Carlos Rodon was better Sunday!
Rodon allowed one hit in seven innings of work with Michael Kopech and Liam Hendriks each working a hitless inning in relief.
Each of three games in the Sox-Astros series pulled in more than 34,000 to Guaranteed Rate Field. Even in pre-Pandemic times, to attract crowds of that size would have caused an important consideration.
After last Sunday’s game, the Sox won-loss record was 56-36 (.609). Factoid: The last time the White Sox were 20 games above .500 in won-loss was in 2008 when the White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins in a one-game playoff for the American League Central championship. The Sox subsequently lost three games to one to Tampa Bay in the American League Divisional Series.
• The Arizona Diamondbacks come into this week’s games with the worst record in the Major League Baseball with a 27-68 (,284) record. Arizona clearly has a long way to go before being a competitive club. Bad as is the Diamondbacks’ record there have been far worse records.
The 1916 Philadelphia Athletics occupy the bottom rung with their 36-117 (.235) showing. Only two years earlier, the Athletics had played in the 1914 World Series and lost four straight games to the Boston Braves. Financial problems forced A’s owner Connie Mack to sell off his best players and the 1916 edition of the A’s was the result.
The 1962 New York Mets were an expansion team that finished 40-120 (.250). For seven consecutive seasons, the Mets finished last or next to last in the National League. Then the Miracle Mets burst upon the scene in 1969, which Chicago Cubs’ fans well remember. The Miracle Mets passed the Cubs earlier lead in the standings in 1969 and won the World Series
No Chicago team made the bottom 10 list in won-lost records.
• Facing a doubleheader defeat at home Monday, the Sox rallied to beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-3, in the nightcap after falling 3-2 in the opener. Gavin Sheets’ three-run home run gave the White Sox the victory.
The Sox won-loss record following the doubleheader split Monday was 57-37. The Cubs were 46-48 and in fourth place Monday in the NL Central.