84

The Sox won their third straight Meat Loaf series (Two Outta Three Ain't Bad), beating the Cubs easily on Friday, ripping their hearts out on a ninth-inning, three-run, come-from-behind homer by A.J. on Saturday, and making it interesting but ultimately losing on Sunday. This followed Meat Loafs (or is that Meat Loaves?) over Pittsburgh and Houston in the previous two series, three others in June over Texas, Cleveland, and Detroit, and three others before that over the Cubs, KC, and Toronto.

I'd be happy to Meat Loaf through the rest of the season. Winning two out of every three games would give the Sox 54 more victories for a season total of 107, and no team has ever won that many games and not finished in first place during the regular season. Or, if the Sox just win two out of three in every remaining three-game series (there are 20 left), win the make-up game against the Angels (to give them two wins in the series that was supposed to have been three games but was rained out in the finale), and play .500 ball in the four-game series, they'll win a franchise record 104 games. So winning two outta three truly ain't bad.

The weekend's games leave the Sox 2.5 back of the Tigers, who are actually playing better than two-outta-three ball on the year. The Magic Number is down to 84 over the Tigers and 59 over the Cubs. By the way, this'll be the last mention of the Paper Boys until we get within 10 of eliminating them, or they fire Dusty, or something else noteworthy happens like Wrigley Field being condemned. (To the anonymous Update reader who asked why I call them the Paper Boys, remember the team is owned by the Tribune Company and the name seems demeaning.) It's not a boycott; they're just not Update-worthy.