Chicago White Sox's Shaky Start Shares Uncanny Parallels to Recent World Series Champion

By besting the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday, the Chicago White Sox's first five games now eerily line up with how the 2021 World Series champions opened that season.

Apr 2, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago White Sox reliever Michael Kopech celebrates with catcher Martin Maldonado. / Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

After starting the 2024 season on a four-game losing streak, the Chicago White Sox turned things around against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night.

And in the process, Chicago somehow put itself in good company in regards to how their season could turn out.

The White Sox currently sit at 1-4 through five games. In that time, they have recorded 28 hits, 11 walks, six home runs and a .329 slugging percentage at the plate while their pitchers have allowed 11 walks.

As noted by Jay Cuda on X, formerly Twitter, those numbers all line up exactly with what the Braves had accomplished through five games in 2021. Famously, Atlanta went on to win the World Series that season.

through 5 games - the world series winning braves team compared to this year's white sox pic.twitter.com/kviUTa1sjV

— Jay Cuda (@JayCuda) April 3, 2024

Chicago aligning itself with Atlanta is promising, considering how dominant the latter has been in recent years. The Braves have won the NL East for the last six seasons, while the White Sox's only AL Central title in the last 15 years came in 2021.

Of course, Tuesday's win doesn't mean all that much just yet, as there are still 157 regular season games left on the schedule. Chicago also sits in dead last in the AL Central, with FanGraphs giving the team a 0.3% chance of even making the postseason.

Plus, if the White Sox had lost their latest game, they would have dropped to 0-5, a record that no eventual World Series champion has ever boasted.

Still, as remote as it may seem, FanGraphs giving Chicago a 0.0% chance of winning the World Series isn't completely backed up by history, given how Atlanta opened up the 2021 campaign.

Most White Sox fans would happily settle for a winning record, though, with a championship seeming wildly unlikely in the near future.

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