(670 The Score) In the span of eight days, the White Sox have gone from holding the No. 1 seed in the American League and a three-game lead in their division to being the seventh seed.
The White Sox are entering play against the Cubs on Saturday evening riding a six-game losing streak and having dropped seven of their past eight games since beating the Twins on Sept. 17 to clinch a playoff berth and take the aforementioned three-game lead in the AL Central. Now, the White Sox are facing the possibility of opening the playoffs Tuesday on the road, depending how the final two regular-season games play out for them and a handful of other teams.
While manager Rick Renteria has acknowledged the losing – specifically a four-game sweep at the hands of the Indians earlier this week – has hit his White Sox hard, general manager Rick Hahn sees a silver lining in the club's rough stretch.
"We have seen the great progress with this group over the last two months," Hahn said on Inside the Clubhouse on Saturday morning. "As frustrating as the last few days have been, playing 17 games in a row and 14 in a row against playoff teams is actually a really good experience for these guys. The environment against Minnesota 10 days ago and Cleveland this week are playoff environments. That is true as close as it can be without fans in the ballpark. Playing consequential games that late in the season with that intensity is a wonderful experience for this group to go through. This could help them when the playoffs begin and serve them well. Our aim is to win this year's championship. If we fall short of that, they will have been important progress made this year."
Hahn took the big-picture view, looking at the young White Sox's 34-24 record through the prism of preseason expectations rather than the their recent standing as the best team in the AL.
"If you would have told all of us that going into the last weekend of the season we would be going into the playoffs with a really good record and a chance to win the division, we probably would have been excited about that," Hahn said. "It has been easy to lose sight of that over the last week watching the way we have been playing. From a wide-lense perspective, it's been a really positive year overall."
Renteria has taken heat lately for some of his managerial decisions, particularly in the use of his bullpen in the ugly series against the Indians. Hahn didn't get into details about Renteria's decision-making but did express support.
"We saw how accountable Ricky was the other day in Cleveland standing up and taking questions in the face of criticism," Hahn said. "I didn't think there was any need for growth in that regard. Ricky and his staff have preached accountability to the players going back to the beginning of our rebuild. That is part of the culture we wanted to create. The fact that Ricky is living up to that is not a surprise. Maybe because the games are more intense and the results are more important, (this) has him fall under more scrutiny. But he and the staff have always been up to that challenge."
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
