It’s not to often when your team makes four errors, yet you still pull out the win. I’m not sure if this is just the great luck the Sox have had, or whether it’s the futility of the Royals, but a wins a win, and the White Sox swept their opponents for the third straight time. Once again the Sox had a hard time getting the bats going (six hits), but they found a way to win.
If you’ve never checked it out, the Hardball Times has a very cool set of team stats that you can’t find elsewhere. The White Sox have outpeformed their Pythagorean Win/Loss by three games, meaning they’ve been winning the close ones. Their 4.53 runs per game are below the league average of 4.77, and they’re only hitting .212 with runners in scoring position. None of those would point to a team with the best record in the American League.
Until, of course, you get to the pitching. Their 3.33 runs against per game is almost a full run lower then the next closest team (Angels, 4.03) and their pitchers have held opposing hitter’s to a .350 slugging percentage, which is just shy of the league leading Indians (.345). But in just about every category, they’re above average.
So it’s all come down to good pitching, and timely hitting. In the process they’ve amassed a four game lead over the Twins, and they’re going to Oakland to play a struggling A’s team. All we can hope is that they keep it going.
