Sox fail epically in Metrodome-- again

I thought about rearranging the order of the site, putting the Bears post on top, but whatever. The Bears column is below this post so make sure you check that out as well.

When I’m stuck at work during huge games, I sometimes write down my thoughts in my email so when I go to write the TUP post at like 3:30 am, I remember what to say. I did that last night for the Sox-Twins game.

Rereading over these notes now, I’m glad I waited to do this reaction post until today. There just would have been too much swearing. Mom and Dad don’t like that.

The original headline was going to be (seriously): “Fuck the Twins, fuck Alonso Marquez, fuck Carlos Gomez. God, I hate white people!”

Yeah, my rage was at an all-time high. And how could it not be? The Sox just blew six months worth of work.

There are a couple ways you can look at this loss/sweep. There is Option A

We got screwed over!

This includes…

1) Injuries

With a healthy Q, Crede, and Contreras, the Sox enter Minnesota with more than a 2.5 game lead. That makes the sweep- which was probably inevitable in the first place- not so deadly.

2) The interleague schedule

From South Side Sox:

In the AL, (the Sox and Twins) have a difference of 11 games.  The numbers in parentheses is the amount of games extra played against an opponent.

White Sox - BAL (3), LAA (2), TB (4), TOR (2) -- combined SOS is .544

Twins - NYY (3), OAK (1), SEA (3), TEX (4) -- combine SOS is .468

To put that into terms, that’s the equivalent of the White Sox playing 11 games against a 86 win team at this point (aka the Twins), while the Twins play 11 games against a 74 win team (slightly worse than Oakland).

To make it worse -- interleague play.  If there was ever a case of why interleague play is bad, and by bad meaning truly evil -- this might be it.  Both teams played 18 games against the NL, with the only same opponent being Colorado.  We played 15 games against different teams.

White Sox - CHC (6), LAD (3), PIT (3), SF (3) -- combined SOS is .517

Twins - ARI (3), MIL (6), SD (3), WSH (3) -- combined SOS is .473

Again, that’s the equivalent of the White Sox playing 15 games against an 82 win team (St. Louis), while the Twins played against the equivalent of a 75 win team (think Cincinnati).

3) The umps

I was at work for games two and three so I couldn’t pay real close attention, but it certainly appeared like the Sox picked that dude off in game two (that dude ended up scoring), and there is no way in hell Swisher went around on the check swing late in game three.

Honestly, I’m not buying Option A. The Sox were just thoroughly outplayed this series, in every facet. That brings us to Option B…

This team just couldn’t handle the pressure of the only series that mattered

Just read the quotes the Sox gave us this weekend. You could tell they were anything but calm, cool, and collected.

1) Kenny Williams before Game Three

''I don't give a [bleep] about any of that,'' he said, as his mood turned from anxious to disgusted with the questioning. ''The only thing I care about is win tonight's [bleep]ing game. Whatever they've [bleep]ing got to do to win tonight's game, so figure it out.''

2) Mark Buehrle before Game Two

''It seems like they can't do anything wrong here,'' Buehrle said of the Twins, after admitting that the Sox do flinch a bit coming to the dome. ''[Manager Ozzie Guillen] calls them 'piranhas,' but I call them 's---heads.' I would tell you what I really call them, but I know you couldn't print it. They get on base, bunt, steal, bloop singles -- it's [bleep]ing annoying.''

(Aside: This cements Buehrle as my favorite White Sox player of all-time. Everything he‘s saying is 100% true. And “The Shitheads”? What a great nickname. The Twins will now forever be referred to by that on this site.)

3) OC after Game One

''The one thing we're missing, a team that wins so many ballgames is missing, is we don't come out every night as the winners. We come out hoping to win a ballgame. I don't think that's the right attitude."

(Aside: The story these quotes appeared in is total bullshit, in my opinion. I’m surprised Joe Cowley took enough time out of his day to stop tickling Ozzie and Kenny’s balls to write it. He forgets he works for the Sun-Times, and independent, objective media outlet, and not the White Sox. Cowley has a clear bias against Cabrera (earlier this year he said he was the team’s fourth best shortstop behind Alexei, Uribe, and, wait for it,…..Ozzie), and his bashing in this story is unnecessary. You know what? Cabrera is absolutely dead on with everything he said. I’m going to miss that guy next year.)

Now, as Cheat reminds us, the Sox still control their own destiny. If they win out, which would include a play-in game over the Twins on Tuesday, they make the playoffs. But it’s not going to happen. I’d be shocked if they took more than a game from Cleveland, a team who’s playing real well right now.

The Sox are dead. Everything came down to this series, and they blew it. Fuck the Shitheads.

(I give them about a 5% chance of making the playoffs now, for what it’s worth.)