Mr. Glass-Half-Full (of Old Overholt)

Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm just a Libra, obsessed with balance. Maybe, baby, I'll have you for me. But while Joebuckco's WS comment is hysterically funny, the essence of it isn't. The injuries--more specifically, the Covid problem--have taken an awful lot out of this team. No Covid, no Heaney. Instead, Monty and Cole. No Heaney, we probably win last night. It's not like the White Sox's great Lance Lynn was any good, nor was their bullpen overall. And that's still without Sanchez and Rizzo in the lineup. And Torres and Gio, for non-Covid reasons.

Hats off to Tyler Wade, the oft bag a la punching, for showing what he can do offensively. Talk about stepping up. Even Gardner has come through more than we could ever expect. Last night, Judge was the Judge of our dreams, and Stanton actually hit a home run that mattered.

Our biggest issue is the loss of three starters and the way that's fucked up the bullpen. Britton shouldn't be closing. He still hasn't come all the way back from his injury, and he may never fully do so. Chapman, for all his horror show performances, could have come in handy. Maybe he would have failed like Britton, but maybe not. We'll never know. The Torre-like knee-jerk use of Britton in the ninth was stupid. Try Green (who may be way overworked), or Lasagna (ditto), or even Ridings (definitely not). But we're saddled with Boone and these things will happen.

The White Sox are widely considered the best team in the AL, and even with Heaney giving up seven runs (holy fuck, Booney!), we played them to a standstill. And that's with all the IL action. The last time we faced Tampa, we won two out of three. Three of four against Seattle, a W-L "peer" of sorts. Those teams aren't tomato cans.

Like Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's one-legged man auditioning for Tarzan, we're hanging in against very long odds. You want to start chiseling our gravestone, fine. Go ahead. I'm just a cockeyed optimist, playing wait and see.