How soon we forget...
Had Jermaine Dye not bailed out the White Sox in the ninth inning of
today's/tonight's game, it wouldn't have been the end of the world. In fact, it would've put the Sox par for the course in comparison to last year.
In 2005, the White Sox nearly went the entire first half without being swept until they ran into the buzzsaw that is the Oakland A's. They dropped
the opener, a game they never lead, and Sox pitching got smacked around in
Game 2. The final game was
an extra-inning loss tagged to Luis Vizcaino, a particularly hard defeat to swallow since the Sox staged a rally in the ninth inning to tie the ballgame.
So if Cliff Politte crumbled like he has often this year, sure we would've been swept, but we would've also been following the blueprint we created the year before.
Then again, the Sox closed out the first half with 57 wins, the same as last year's total at the break. Either way, the Sox could be doing a lot worse for themselves.