White Sox Lobby To Keep Team Together After Trade Deadline

Where was this team all season? The White Sox came into Atlanta and took two of three from the Braves, clinching the series victory in convincing fashion.

The Braves hadn’t lost back-to-back games since the end of May and were riding a streak of 11 straight series wins.  If you ask White Sox manager Pedro Grifol, they just beat the best team in baseball. 

“Leave it all on the field. That’s all you can do,” Grifol told reporters after the game. “For me, that’s probably the best team in baseball. They don’t have any weaknesses in my opinion. It’s a good series for us, a good series.” 

Dylan Cease returned home and logged six strikeouts against a team he used to have season tickets to watch, en route to a 8-1 victory. With nearly 40 friends and family in attendance, Cease racked up 17 swings and misses in 99 pitches and was able to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning. He allowed just three hits, three walks, and just one earned run. 

With the help of Reynaldo Lopez, Aaron Bummer, and Jesse Scholtens, Cease and the bullpen snapped the Braves franchise record 28-game home run streak. 

“Our bats were there, we played great defense for the most part, our pitching was solid,” Cease said. “It’s one of those series that shows the kind of talent we have.” 

Jake Burger started things off with a 460 ft two-run homer to left-center while Andrew Benintendi, Tim Anderson, and Luis Robert Jr. combined for, five RBIs, four runs scored, five RBIs, and nine of the team's 14 hits. Robert Jr capped off his fourth career multi-hit game with his 27th home run of the season. 

“That was awesome,” Burger said. “We were getting hits from everybody. It’s what we know we are capable of doing. It’s just doing that on a consistent basis.” 

There is no denying that it was a great series victory. But don’t let the post-game comments fool you. This team has not earned the benefit of the doubt. With the series win the White Sox are still 15 games below .500 and 8.5 games back from the AL Central lead. They are also just 18 innings removed from a 9-0 loss in the first game of the series. 

As a fan, I will never be mad that the White Sox are winning games. But one series victory should not change the narrative around this team. The players and coaches may try and get you to believe that they can turn this thing around but the numbers don’t lie. 

The White Sox are 23rd in the MLB in runs scored,  20th in batting average, 29th in OBP, 23rd in OBP, and 23rd in team ERA. The sad truth is that they probably have the talent to make a run, but after digging themselves an early hole they have lost the luxury of time. 

The series victory against Atlanta is too little too late.  If the White Sox want to truly show everyone this was not just a fluke they need to back it up on the rest of the road trip. Even if they do that it still may not be enough to ward off the inevitable sell-off.

Going undefeated in their next six games would still place the White Sox nine games under .500 and still at least two and a half games back from the Twins. With a matchup against Justin Verlander due up on Wednesday that is going to be a tall order.