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The Chicago White Sox were able to accomplish something never done before and that is to beat three different teams on three different days to move into the playoffs making it the first time the Cubs and Sox have both been in the playoffs since 1906. So while the Sox are a relatively tired ball club running on a lot of adrenaline after late season heroics, the Cubs are rested, have their pitching rotation exactly how they want it and are ready to face the Los Angeles Dodgers. For the Sox, the three consecutive victories first against Cleveland in the finale of a 3 game series ending last Sunday was a dramatic win cause it was a win or go home for the White Sox. With the win or go home against the Detroit Tigers on Monday, the game was marked by a 3 hour rain delay then a grand slam by very talented 2nd basemen, Alexei Ramirez. That grand slam not only catapulted the Sox ahead of Detroit to stay but also the first time in Major League history that a rookie hit 4 grand slams in one season. So with all of the blackout frenzy that abounded at US Cellular field on Tuesday night, the White Sox await the rested and certainly talented Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa for a Wednesday afternoon, Thursday evening, 2 games set before heading back to Chicago.

The 2 youngest members of the rotation, Gavin Floyd and John Danks were the 2 guys that came up really big in their final regular season starts. Floyd wound up 17-8 and Danks wound up the season 12-9. So their two youngest pitchers were a combined 12 games over 500 while the rest of the pitching staff and bullpen wound up only 3 games over 500 for the entire season. If not for injured Carlos Quentin, the youthful Alexei Ramirez and the 2 youngest starters, Gavin Floyd and John Danks. The White Sox would have been one of the 22 teams that went home instead of one of the 8 teams going on. The Sox are going to face one of the toughest home teams in the Tampa Bay Rays. Although Tropicana Field is not quite as tough for the White Sox as the Metrodome. The Rays provide a real difficult challenge because of the tremendous challenge because of the speed in their lineup and the solid starting rotation they throw, in this case, at the Sox. Javier Vasquez will pitch the first game with Mark Buerhle going game #2 early Thursday evening. Then it will be Gavin Floyd in game 3 and if necessary, John Danks in game 4. So certainly good luck to the Sox and all of their fans. Obviously as we know, getting into the playoffs is just a start but when pushed with their backs to the wall, the White Sox responded with 3 straight win or go home victories and hopefully they will carry that momentum into the playoffs.

The Chicago Cubs are a very sound and healthy team going into the playoffs. The Cubs have the National League’s best team and I am sure that although they are going to face the Dodgers in the first round, they would have much rather faced the Mets. I would think the Cubs could dispatch the Dodgers in 4 games but sometimes funny things happen on the way to World Championships.  The Cubs certainly deserve the home field advantage they will have throughout the playoffs having won the most games in the National League and as far as 4 pitchers going into the playoffs, you are hard pressed to find 4 better than Dempster, Zambrano, Harden and Lily who will pitch in that order. Last year, the bats were strangely silent in the playoffs but had a lot to do with the Diamondbacks’ pitching staff just as it did with Sox hitters. This year they won’t have to face as tough a pitching staff and they’ve got the first 2 in the 3 of the 5 in the friendly confines. And although the Cubs have some questions in their bullpen, who doesn’t in this time of year. I know it's become a habitual lament of ‘this could be the year’ or ‘this should be the year’ only to wind up saying, “wait ‘til next year.” But there are no excuses folks and this should be the year because the Cubs have the best team in the National League and probably as good a team as there is in baseball. So good luck with the Cubs and all of their fans and with this, it would be nice to see the Cubs and Sox in the series.