Three years of 100-plus losses for the Chicago White Sox could end with a playoff berth? Never been done before. Heck, no team has made the playoffs after two consecutive triple-digit-loss seasons, much less three.

But here’s Chicago, and they are leading the Central. Munetaka Murakami has already hit 20 mun balls (Homophonic puns are still okay, kids. Language is supposed to be fun!) He hasn’t been fun for opposing pitchers. He’s gone yard once every ten at-bats. 

At third base, newb Colson Montgomery is swinging and missing way too much, but when he connects, it goes far. Thirty percent of his hits are homers (16). 

He could take pointers from Miguel Vargas. The former Dodger is hitting 42 points higher than his career average coming into the season and has lowered his strikeout-to-walk ratio this season to just a shade over 1:1. Pretty impressive.  He has as many long homers as Montgomery. Andrew Benintendi (also a former Dodger) has been decent while providing veteran leadership. 

There are more no-name guys contributing in some way to this success. Every night,  Tristan Peters, Sam Antonacci, Chase Meidroth, Jacob Gonzalez, or Everton Pereira step up to do something to win a game. It’s a fun team to watch. 

On the mound, they need another starter and bullpen depth. Davis Martin (2.41 ERA). Sean Burke (3.88 ERA) and Anthony Kay (4.34 ERA) have been a solid 1-2-3. but the four reliable guys they count on have been really good. Eric Fedde allows a run every two innings, which is a little better than his 4.94 career ERA. Sean Newcomb, Grant Taylor, Bryan Hudson and Seranthony Dominguez have been really good out of the pen. 

Those four guys are going to wear out at this rate. They have outscored the opposition 326-310 in 68 games. They need a couple of those guys who are giving up a run every other outing to do better. 

Forecast: How fun is it to talk about the White Sox having a playoff shot! They’re in the right division to do it. If they can make a move for a little help, they could reach 90 wins. If everyone collapses at once (entirely possible), we could be looking at 74. Let’s go for 90!