Social Fodder: Beat it with the 'White Sox can't beat good teams,' bologna
There's plenty of past precedent of teams winning it all with a losing record against winning teams.
Baseball is 162 games long, allowing plenty of time for fans, media, and any other viewer to find something to argue about. Sunday, dominant pitching and timely hitting by the Chicago White Sox helped them complete the sweep of the Detroit Tigers, thus improving their season record to 41-24 and 8-2 against Detroit.
Well, that is still not enough. Why? Because through 65 games, Chicago is five games under .500 against teams with a winning record. After some digging, that should not be the biggest of concerns for this team. Plenty of champions found other ways to win.
White Sox anchor Chuck Garfien took to Twitter to relieve fans of any stress of one area the Sox have struggled in so far. But it sparked the daily “White Sox Twitter” argument to take sides on.
Chicago Sun-Times reporter Mark Potash decided to chime in to say their losing record against winning ball clubs should be a thing of worry. Right now, the White Sox are 11-16 against winning teams, but there is plenty of time to change that. Even if they do not, the future remains bright.
First, it’s only June 14, and the White Sox have 97 games left to turn that record around. The record that Potash noted was for the end of the season. Major League Baseball is not at the end yet. It is hard to compare in this matter. And while what his tweet states remains true for the White Sox, it does not reign true for much of the league and its’ World Series champions.
Since 2001, just over half the World Series winners have an above .500 record against winning ball clubs. Of those twelve teams, only seven are above .500 by five or more games. And just two, the 2009 New York Yankees and 2013 Boston Red Sox had a winning record by 10 or more games against those winning ball clubs.
That leaves us with eight teams. The 2019 Washington Nationals and 2011 St. Louis Cardinals were the only two teams with even records against said teams.
The final six all had losing records. These include the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, 2002 Anaheim Angels, 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, 2008 Philadelphia Phillies, and the 2010 and 2012 San Francisco Giants. That 2010 Giants team was eight games under .500 with a 33-41 record against teams with winning records.
Don’t sweat this losing record. What matters is that the White Sox have made the most of their opportunities by beating bad teams that cushion their division lead.
They also have been dealt a terrible card when it comes to injuries way too many times to count, which definitely would allow them to factor in better. The resilience of this team has kept them moving and remaining competitive even with the losses of Eloy Jiménez, Luis Robert, Michael Kopech, and Nick Madrigal, to name a few.
For those following the White Sox, divisional games were no guarantees. Many of them were battles, and Chicago, for many years, took way too many of the losses. As of late, that has changed, and that is exactly what needs to happen. The 2021 Chicago White Sox are taking care of business.
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