(670 The Score) White Sox closer Liam Hendriks won't be sharing any direct trash talk for his team's American League Division Series foe after Chicago clinched the AL Central crown with a win in Cleveland on Thursday afternoon.
Of course, that shouldn't be confused with any lack of confidence. Despite recent uneven play from his White Sox, Hendriks has no doubt that they're the best team in baseball when they're clicking.
"We have now proven that we are the team to beat in the Central," Hendriks said on the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Thursday afternoon. "If we get every cylinder firing on the right thing, we are the best team in baseball – not just in the American League, in baseball."
Chicago won the division with a 7-2 win at Cleveland in the opener of a doubleheader Thursday. It marked the White Sox's first AL Central crown in 13 years. Now, their sights are set on more.
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The White Sox (86-66) are currently in line to play the AL West-leading Astros (91-61) in the ALDS. There remains an outside chance that Houston can catch AL East-leading Tampa Bay. The Astros trailed the Rays (94-59) by 2.5 games entering play Thursday.
Hendriks called the Astros "one of the better playoff teams in baseball" and added they have "a different level they can turn to." That's the level the White Sox are trying to achieve.
"We're cocky enough, we're arrogant enough in our own mentality, what we feel during the games (is) that we know that no matter what happens, if both teams are hot at the same time, we will win that," he said. "That's a foregone conclusion with the stuff we have, the people we got. That's a foregone conclusion. Now the last couple weeks have been interesting. Now we're focused on making sure we can sweep the doubleheader today because that's about as good of a momentum boost as you can get. And then we take it into the last week and the playoffs and whoever we play, yeah, there's always some teams you can find that you need some retribution against.
"We need to turn it on right now and get the momentum going so as soon as the playoffs hit, we're firing on all cylinders. We're running out there and we're ready to demolish some teams."
