‘‘There’s a lot of belief in this clubhouse that if we start sniffing .500 and then get above it, there’s no turning back.’’ — White Sox pitcher Erick Fedde
A .500 record in May is something no one expected. Not by them. Not by us. Probably not by anyone inside of MLB.
But here they be. Hovering around that even record like their baseball lives hang in that balance. Playing and competing in every game as if it’s their last, as if the postseason is the destination.
Dare any of us believe — or say out loud — that 90 losses is no longer a destiny that should be attached to or inserted into this Sox team’s 2026 future. We know how the baseball gods have treated them in the recent past, and jinxes in baseball are for real. Just ask the Mets.
For the Sox, this month (season?) could become the difference between horrid and torrid. Not based so much on what they’re doing, but for the depths they’ve lifted themselves from.
Entering this May, the Triple “M” heart of Miguel Vargas, (the rookie phenom) Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery has provided problems for opposing pitchers and managers, which hasn’t been the case facing Sox bats in years. The hype of (the “potential” rookie phenom) Noah Schultz provides them promise.
The concept: Schultz becomes their Paul Skenes. Montgomery their PCA. Murakami their Big Dumper.
Yet it all comes down to the value of manager Will Venable. The quiet-as-kept, IYKYK clubhouse and field leader who should have run from this job but decided to run toward it. With a season under his belt, seeing how last season at the helm neither his nor the team’s bottom fell out (in spite of ownership; with credit to management for making what so far has come off as all of the right offseason moves), Venable’s tactical optimism — and spirit — has been the sun to which this team seems to orbit.
Xander Bogaerts hit a go-ahead infield single in the eighth, Miguel Andujar and Manny Machado homered and the Padres beat the Sox 4-3 on Sunday at Petco Park. The loss ended the Sox’ five-game winning streak and prevented them from reaching the .500 mark.
But they were there, close enough to know that they can get there again. And stay there. By the end of the month. Flirting with first place in the Central like they were single, Regé-Jean Page-looking, with a Koch family trust fund and a PJ waiting in the hangar. They’re 17-21, at the moment, their slide, reality. Back to their past, customary direction. But even with that being the current case, the feel is different. Unique, to this team. Watching, rooting, playing.
Things done changed.
Sitting at 9-14 on April 21, the pivotal moment arrived. The back-to-back-to-back yards in the second inning (after scoring four in the first) along with Sam Antonacci’s inside-the-park home run in an 11-5 win allowed them to embrace capability. Winning that series against the Diamondbacks, then the series against the Nationals, then sweeping a series against the Athletics, then taking two of three against the Padres, they’d arrived. Introduced themselves to the dead-even threshold. And even as things really haven’t been the same since, there breathes extreme hope that these Sox won’t ever be the same as before. But they — like all of us — will take it one month at a time.
Down 7-1 Wednesday against the Angels in the eighth with the bases loaded, the feeling of loss and leaving Mitchell’s Tap early before that game was over never reached the bottoms of anyone’s stomachs. Even after a loss the game before. The vibe’s still positive. The 81-81 season in 2022, the only in-the-moment reflection. The North Side can’t keep having all of the fun.
That .500 is a hell of a goal for a division in which .534 last season (Guardians) gets you the crown. As the current division leader just lost the best ace in the game (Tarik Skubal) for two months.
The nine-game homestand to open up this second weekend in May that began Friday should be the judge. The seven-game homestand to end the month should be the jury. Wherever they stand by then is what they (and we as fans) hang our black New Era custom fitted’s on. Look, it’s not the same as having three games in a row won by walk-offs (Cubs), but from where the Sox have been and the hell from which they’ve come, .500 at anytime in May is a blessing.
No longer in disguise.