Yeah, even before the series, despite the record, I was thinking that’s the matchup I least want to see if the White Sox make the playoffs.
Magic number = 20. The rest of the schedule isn’t too bad. One series against each in the division, plus Pitts, Stl, and Col. Of course, since most teams have similar records, I suppose most of the schedules are pretty similar, too. OK, I checked. Cleveland has Boston and is otherwise similar. Minn has the Yankees.
Jays helped the White Sox by winning the last two games against Cleveland. Jays’ fans expect similar help from White Sox against their other contenders.
White Sox have a 3 game lead which is huge in comparison to the race for last WC spot. If Cleveland loses its next game there would be a four way tie until the other contenders play their next game.
Rain delay in the Detroit-Cleveland DH today. That could really wreck Cleveland’s pitching rotation if those games don’t get played today.
So… triple-header tomorrow?
The White Sox don’t have all that much help left to give the Jays. The 3 games against Cleveland seem likely to be key for both teams, certainly. Maaaaybe the 3 against Minn this weekend. I suppose a really bad weekend could put MN back in the race, but even then I don’t think they’re Toronto’s worry. I think there are too many teams in the wildcard race for someone to back into the last spot. If Tor is fighting against MN, I don’t like either of their chances in getting in. Other than that, the White Sox don’t have any other games against AL wildcard teams.
You are forgetting the transitive property. If White Sox hurt Twins I can hope the Twins hurt Rangers, etc.
Detroit!!! Giving up 3 walkoffs in games where they were never trailing in a single weekend! Cmon. You’re killing me and Cooke!
Yeah, I’ve been swearing at the Tigers. Hope the White Sox sweep the Tigers and Guardians when they next meet.
Catching the 9th inning of Cle Bal. It’s not lost yet, but wtf.
Cleveland saves their best to their last inning. Hope the White Sox have as good a closer as the Jays.
Here is one way of analyzing how the rest of the season will play out, using “strength of schedule” which is just win-loss record of opponents.
Might want to use Pythagorean record instead of actual.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/49796212/mlb-2026-remaining-strength-schedule-top-playoff-contenders
I don’t think this bodes well for SEA. They need to win more than 60% of their games, and the rest need to lose more than 60% of their games for them to have a chance of getting eliminated in the first round. (Disclaimer: just an estimate. They need to go 14-3 just to get back to 0.500.)
Strength of schedule is pretty similar for Chi, Cle, Tor, the teams I’m paying the most attention to right now.
I put more weight on the strength of schedule stat for the NFL than for MLB. Teams beat teams with better records fairly frequently in baseball.
Which team has the best karma balance currently? I’d go with them.
Chicago has an advantage that they’re all young enough not to know they shouldn’t be doing as well as they are.
As the A’s take 2 of 3 from last year’s AL champs.
QED, eh?
This Jays’ fan will be watching the White Sox-Guardian series with great interest. I thought the White Sox were home-free a few weeks ago but that’s baseball!
P. S. A sweep of the Guardians would be a great help to the Jays.
Yeah, the Jays have the tiebreaker against Cle, but not against Chi, so there’s an extra game’s worth of rooting motivation there for Chi to take that series.
WS magic number has crept to 13, which is how many games are left. Any win against Cle will give the tiebreaker to the White Sox, so they could drop it by 3 with one win. Tense times. It feels like the White Sox are going for the record of most runners on 3rd with no out that don’t score.
WS magic number vs Tor is 11.
This is reminiscent of 2005. The White Sox had what looked like a good lead, but floundered near the end until they had a key series against Cle in the final week that could have knocked them out of the playoffs.
If Chicago wins its division and the Jays get a WC spot I hope Chicago gets a first round bye. Chicago has had the Jays’ number this year.
84 wins should win a WC spot. None of these teams is good enough for a strong finish!