When last we saw the White Sox, on June 13 in that near-double-no-hitter won by the Cubs, the Sox had a 28-34 record and were 7.5 games out of first place. The Cubs, by winning that June 13 game, were 28-35, also 7.5 games out of first place.
That was the last game the Sox lost -- they're now riding a nine-game winning streak; at 37-34 they stand 2.5 games behind the AL Central leading Twins. Meanwhile, the Cubs have plodded along at 4-5, but remarkably, have lost only half a game on the NL Central leaders during that time.
It's getting real late. But the Sox have shown how quickly you can turn a season around. Maybe the Cubs still have that in them. It'd be nice to do that starting today.
Interleague play has been around for 14 seasons, and Paul Konerko of the White Sox is third on the all-time list of playing the most games against a single interleague opponent.
Derek Jeter has played in 75 of the 78 Mets/Yankees games (going into this weekend, and you'd assume he'll add three more to that list). Garret Anderson played in 65 games against the Dodgers as an Angel (and has now played in four more of those games as an Angel). And Konerko has played in 58 of the 75 Cubs/White Sox games to date, more than any other single player in the history of the crosstown Chicago rivalry. Konerko is having a good year. Let's hang an 0-fer on him this weekend. Just for the record, the Cub who has played the most games in interleague play vs. the Sox is Sammy Sosa (53). Among active Cubs, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez (who will be activated from the DL today) are tied with 34.
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Jake Peavy threw a nice game against the Cubs two weeks ago at Wrigley, then tossed a three-hit shutout against the Nationals in his last outing. He's throwing quite well. Alfonso Soriano hits him best -- 7-for-19 with three homers.
Z has not faced the Sox this year, but last year he had one decent start (at Wrigley) and one bad one (at the Cell). In his career he's made eleven starts (13 total appearances) vs. the Sox and is 5-3, 4.56 with a rather alarming total of 12 homers allowed in 75 innings. Four of those HR have been hit by Paul Konerko, who is 8-for-28 overall against Z.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago with Len & Bob and on WGN with those other guys. Tune in to the other guys and see how many times they actually talk to each other, rather than at each other. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation White Sox site South Side Sox.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 3 pm CDT, and the overflows will post at 4, 5 and 5:45 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.