Rongey: Oh, what might have been for Chicago White Sox
You might not have realized what I'm about to tell you, but I want you to remember a time a little more than three weeks ago:
MLB was approaching the trade deadline, and the White Sox were in the midst of their most meaningful winning streak of the season (seven games that put them within a victory of .500).
The Minnesota Twins were surprisingly in the playoff picture, while the Sox were considering a trade of Jeff Samardzija or an acquisition for some offensive help.
Some White Sox fans were cautiously hopeful their team, not far from a playoff spot, may had turned the proverbial corner we'd been waiting for since April. Others were resolute in their position the season was lost and, despite the Sox being only 3½ games back, there were too many teams to hurdle on their way to the second wild card.
In some regard, it turns they all were right.
Yes, four teams separated the Sox from that wild-card spot at the time, and today there are six in front of them. But, as I figured, that deficit wasn't insurmountable, because at the start of play Sunday the Texas Rangers held the second wild-card position.
Which leads me to the thing you may not realize: on July 30 (one day before the trading deadline) the White Sox were a half-game in front of the Rangers.
Yeah.
As a Sox fan, the two conclusions you probably should reach from that: 1) aided by the addition of the second wild-card spot, the 2015 American League wild-card race is truly volatile, and 2) good grief, the Sox really did have a chance.
I guess you also could then reach a third conclusion: This revelation doesn't make you feel much better about where your team is now.
Texas has won two of every three games since the day of the trade deadline, while the Sox have gone 9-12. Just enough to vault the Rangers firmly into the playoff hunt. Yes, this could have been the White Sox.
Unfortunately, the South Siders located that inconsistency they were hoping they had lost for good. It's not that we haven't seen them be a good ballclub; it's that we haven't seen them be a good ballclub for long enough stretches to be a serious contender.
You wouldn't be a pessimist to doubt the Sox can put together a genuine run as they head into the final six weeks. After all, it's not often a team makes that kind of leap with such a short time to play.
I think we're most certainly assured of a tremendous final month in the AL. With seven teams separated by only 5½ games, I'll be shocked if we don't see an explosive finish.
To give you an idea of how insanely tight that is, the closest last-place team to a first-place team in any of baseball's divisions this year are the Boston Red Sox, who are 12½ games behind the AL East-leading New York Yankees.
The American League wild-card race is something else, and it will provide the drama a baseball fan craves as the season winds down. It really is a shame the White Sox followed that winning streak by going 2-8.
The optimist in me will hope they can assemble another improbable run.
Even if not, the closing weeks will be fun to watch.
• Chris Rongey is the host of the White Sox pregame and postgame shows on WSCR 670-AM The Score. Follow him on Twitter@ChrisRongey and at chrisrongey.com.