It was almost 100 games ago that this series was stoked up for the first time since the uphill-climb of 2018 — and that was a season we knew would be bad, and could follow with bemusement and muted hope for better days.
Our better days came in a brief, pandemic 2020 and then a 93-win run in the full year of 2021. While beggars can’t be choosers, both years came with caveats, as 2020 was a sneeze of a season that featured a White Sox fall from tops in the AL to playoff road club in a blink of an eye and 2021 was, well, Tony La Russa’d.