Monday, August 16, 2004

Keep Hope Alive

There’s a fine line between hope and despair. It seems I’ve found that line at five games back.

The Sox spent most of the last week six games behind the Twins. And this team, without Frank and Maggs, sure didn’t seem capable of gaining six games on the Twins in the standings.

I pretty much stopped worrying about how many games behind the Sox had fallen. Not that I stopped caring. It was still painful watching the Sox blow a 5-3 9th inning lead against the Tribe. But I didn’t go to bed thinking about another wasted opportunity to gain a game on the Twins.

But now the Sox actually managed to win their last two series and gained two games on the Twins in the process. Sitting 4 games back, I’m again plotting all the scenarios by which the Sox can gain ground on the Twins, and now also the Indians.

So hope is alive. The Sox need to play good baseball for a twenty game stretch and they’ll back in the mix. I’m not sure they’re capable but I can at least ponder the possibility.

Given that the Sox haven’t been able to manage any long win streaks this year, the Sox will most likely need help from both the Twins and Indians. So go Yanks, go Rangers and go White Sox.