For a few glorious days, the White Sox were the story of baseball — or at least the story on White Sox Dave's timeline. A team that was supposed to get steamrolled through its toughest stretch of the year was instead doing the steamrolling, and WSD was out here ready to canonize Chris Getz and the entire coaching staff in real time.
WSD framing the run as a full vibe-shift heading into the Dodgers series.
We thought this was gonna be the toughest stretch of the year for the Sox. So far it’s turned out to be the toughest stretch of the year for the teams coming to play the Sox. This team has quickly become one of my favorite sox teams ever. Can’t believe it
So naturally, the move was to roll up to Whiskey at Comiskey with the ChiSportsBums, get the tailgate humming, and pencil in another dub against the defending champs. Burke on the mound, lineup raking, two of two on the day. That was the plan. The universe heard the plan.
The pregame marching orders before first pitch.
En route to Whiskey at Comiskey. See everyone soon. Let’s get another dub today then sweep these west coast assholes!
Then Shohei Ohtani did Shohei Ohtani things. A 109.6 mph missile off Burke, 409 feet, his 14th of the year, and suddenly the Sox were chasing on their own field. That's a number you don't really process in real time — it just leaves the bat and lands somewhere in the next zip code.
Ohtani's solo shot off Burke to put L.A. on the board first.
From there it got uglier in the way only Yoshinobu Yamamoto can make it ugly. 21 up, 21 down through 7, Dodgers up 5-0, and a sold-out Rate Field watching a perfect game form in front of them. The tailgate energy from a few hours earlier had officially curdled into the most universal baseball-fan prayer there is: please, just one hit.
WSD lowering the bar in real time as Yamamoto kept mowing through the order.
Okay fellas we’re at the let’s just get one hit part of the game
It's a gut check moment, not a referendum. This Sox team has spent weeks making the league look silly, and one buzzsaw outing from arguably the best pitcher on the planet doesn't undo the run. But the west coast sweep dream is dead, the perfect game watch is on, and the lesson is the same one every overachieving team eventually learns — sometimes the other guy is just better that night.