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The hottest team in baseball will be playing this weekend in Chicago. Of course, there’s no guarantee that by the time the weekend is over that the hottest team in baseball will still be much more than lukewarm. Mainly because it’s the White Sox, who own the longest current win streak in the major leagues. Their 4-3, 12-inning victory at Kansas City on Thursday was the sixth in a row. Before any Sox fans get too carried away by this recent success, a reminder they need to close out the season 30-6 to finish with better than a .500 record.
Back to school? OK, as long as Larisa Fraser (Ryan Braun’s fiancee) is part of the picture.
* For the record, the folks at coolstandings.com list the Sox’ chances for a postseason berth at 0.0. Before any Cubs fans out there get too giddy about those prospects, the folks at coolstandings.com list the Cubs’ postseason chances at 0.1.
* Let the record also show, the Sox (52-74) could challenge the Cubs (54-73) fpr the best record by a Chicago baseball team this season.
* Speaking of the Cubs, Donnie Murphy hit a ninth-inning home run to prolong which became a 5-4, 13-inning loss to the Washington Nationals. He has eight home runs in 58 at-bats in 16 games. He is hitting a home run every 7.25 at-bats.
* Having Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo bat 1-2 in the Cubs lineup must have seemed like a good idea to manager Dale Sveum when he instituted it this week. If nothing else, batting them that high in the lineup assures them of the most plate appearances. Sveum might want to figure a way for them to get on base. In Thursday’s loss, Rizzo was 0-for-6 and Castro 0-for-5 with a walk. Even more incredible, Castro was caught stealing twice. He also committed his 16th error of the season. Well, finally a category in which a Cub leads all of baseball.
* Ryan Braun needs to apologize for the apology he issued Thursday. The Milwaukee Brewers outfielder, who was suspended last month for 65 games, wants us to believe he used performance-enhancing drugs only once — in 2011. Which seems about as plausible as Braun lying only once during his entire process.
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