The White Sox completed a sweep of the Tigers today, taking game three of the series by a score of 7-3. That puts the White Sox 5 1/2 back with 46 games to go. It’s not going to be easy for either team down the stretch as they both play plenty of opponents in contention in all three divisions. However, the White Sox get the Royals next while Detroit moves on to Boston. Chicago has a chance to gain more ground before a four game series in Detroit starting 8/21.
The Tigers offense is in a bit of a tail spin, only scoring 33 runs in their last nine games. Outside of Monroe and Guillen, the team is just not getting on base enough. Are they tiring? They still have a substantial lead, but Leyland needs to have them fresh when they face the White Sox again in a week. They missed an opportunity to put the division away this weekend. The Tigers shouldn’t let that happen again.
Teams can pretty much be expected to go into a funk at some point in the season (unless you’re the ’98 Yankees or ’01 Mariners–and even they had four-game losing streaks).
I’m a Yankee, but hey, my heart’s slowly going to the Sox.
In this series, there was exactly one reason the Tigers offense didn’t show up: White Sox pitching didn’t let it enter the building. Big games from big game pitchers who won big games down the stretch and in the postseason last year.