A reason for optimism for the White Sox

This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin’s White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ANAHEIM -- The Red Sox are the worst team in baseball. They are going to lose 100 games.

Those thoughts were just a few I had on May 8 after the White Sox completed a three-game sweep at Fenway Park, dropping the Red Sox to 10-19 overall. Chicago played very good baseball that weekend, but Boston looked worse than its record -- if that was possible.

So, why am I bringing up this traditional American League East power, other than to point out my assessments were way off the mark? Well, it’s a sign of hope for the White Sox.

Since that low point, when Boston was in last place and 10 games out of first, Alex Cora’s crew has produced a 32-13 record and now sits as the top American League Wild Card team. Sure, they are 12 games behind the Yankees, but those deficits tend to happen when the best team in baseball resides in your division.

My point is that hope remains for the White Sox, who entered their six-game West Coast trip to Anaheim and San Francisco at 34-37 and 5 1/2 games behind the Twins in the AL Central. They have a couple of factors on their side, in that the team appears to be on the verge of getting healthy -- with “appears” being the key word -- and, after this weeklong road excursion, they play 19 straight games against the AL Central.

Eight of those games are against the Guardians, who sit at second. Seven are against the Twins, and four are against Detroit. A significant run would have double the impact against the teams the White Sox are chasing.

“I don’t think we’ve played our best ball,” said White Sox reliever Aaron Bummer, one of the key players currently on the injured list. “It’s easy to make rash judgements based on two-week stretches or a bad month, but all it takes is a string of games in our division where we rattle off series win after series win and all of a sudden those four games turn into zero.

“So, it’s just putting ourselves in a spot to be able to play our best ball. Those division games are going to mean a lot more now. It’s being able to handle business against teams and go out and win the games we need to win.”

Many fans would counter by saying that maybe this 2022 White Sox version doesn’t have a similar run put together by the Red Sox within them. Maybe this is a .500 team or a sub-.500 team, which they have pretty much shown since starting the season at 6-2. General manager Rick Hahn has said on a few occasions the White Sox need to get to .500 before talking about the standings, and since the squad reached that point last Tuesday, they've gone 1-5 and been outscored, 30-15.

One step forward, two steps back -- or so it seems in '22. But it is possible for a talented team, playing below its set standards to date, to quickly get things together.