Rob Neyer: Sox Aren't Dead Yet

Lead off this morning, with a quick blog post by ESPN's Rob Neyer, who proclaims,

You have to like the Rays in a best-of-five series, straight up. So you have to really like them now, when they need to win just one of three. But the White Sox have a shot because they're heading home, where they have thrived. Tampa Bay's 57-24 record at home was the best in the American League; Chicago's 54-28 was third-best. The White Sox finished second in the American League in home scoring, and their 143 home runs at home were easily the most in the majors.

So there you go. Nice to have someone in Bristol (sort of) on our side. Tampa starts Matt Garza and Andy Sonnanstine in Games 3 and 4. The Sox that have seen Garza, have hit him well. In 41 combined plate appearances, the Sox have hit him to a combined tune of .382/.488/.618, not bad especially when paired with a notoriously offense-friendly ballpark. However, those numbers are pretty light; Jerry Owens, for Christ's sake, is one of the most seasoned players against Garza.

Sonnanstine is a bit different. Of course, he pitched a three-hit shutout against the Sox earlier this year, but he was pretty mediocre in his two other starts against the Sox; 12 IP, 19 H, 7 R (all earned), 1 BB, 4 K. That's an ERA of 5.25 and a WHIP of 1.667.

Confidence is probably too much, but I still think they can hang around in this thing. Toward the end of his post, Neyer says that if the Sox can get the series back to Tampa Bay, they at least have a chance. You have to assume if the Rays let a 2-0 series lead evaporate into a 2-2 tie, they'll come home on their seat's edge. Can they reverse their struggles indoors? I don't know, but anything can happen in what is essentially a 1-game play-off, and right now, that's all I got going.

If you want a Division Champs hat, you'll need to look for one offline somewhere. Sometime earlier, MLB.com pulled the official hats the Sox were wearing on the field after they beat Minnesota; the ones that look like this. Apparently, the reason is that since the Sox were the last of the 6 division winners to make the cut, they simply ran out of hats. If you notice, all the hats look exactly the same, just with different patches sewn on the front.

If you want one, whitesox.com won't be any help. Check out sporting goods stores around the area.

Finally, the Seattle Times speculates that White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn is in the running for the vacant GM position with the Mariners. Best of luck. Seattle is a nice town, but Lord help the guy who tries to fix that team right now.

P.S., Rick, if you land the job, I would like to request your first order of business to trade Ichiro to the Sox. We can play hardball here and work out the terms, but I won't take "No" for an answer.