MLB Notebook: The White Sox are red hot

It’s not fun, and it’s a situation we’d all like to avoid, but this week’s MLB notebook starts with two bummers in a row. Thankfully, we’ve got some fun stuff to end with, but there are situations on opposite coasts we must pay attention to.

Oakland Stadium Saga May Force a Relocation

Everything about this makes this Bay Area resident roll his eyes. Major League Baseball has advised the Oakland Athletics to relocate if they cannot get approval to build a new stadium to replace the much-maligned Oakland Coliseum. This is another gut-punch to Oakland sports fans, who have lost the Raiders to Las Vegas and the Warriors to San Francisco in the past few years.

Relocating isn’t anything new for the franchise. The A’s started in Philadelphia, headed to Kansas City in 1955, and moved to Oakland in 1968, so it’s not like they’re an Oakland creation. However, the Coliseum doesn’t make my list of bottom-five ballparks (does the Coliseum have catwalks in the field of play with special rules if they’re hit by fly balls? No? Then hush), and it’d be a real shame for the Bay Area to lose another team.

Yankees Combat COVID-19 Woes

It was a rough start to the season for the New York Yankees, but the Bronx Bombers seemed to have righted the ship with 11 wins in their last 14 games through Wednesday to get to 20-16 on the season. Just as that happened, though, news broke that seven members of the organization tested positive for COVID-19, and shortstop Gleyber Torres was benched Wednesday as a precaution. All positive testers are asymptomatic as of press time, but this is certainly a situation to monitor.

Mets On a Tear Despite Several Injuries

Raise your hand if you predicted the Mets winning seven consecutive games despite injuries to all-world pitcher Jacob deGrom and outfielder Albert Almora Jr. Okay, now put them back down.

The Mets took the final two games at St. Louis and swept both the Diamondbacks and Orioles to vault into the lead in the NL East. It’s a slim one, and the difference between first and last in that division is just 5.5 games, but perhaps this is an indication New York is set to out-perform expectations in 2021.

White Sox Get Hot, Grab AL Central Lead

The Chicago White Sox have won nine of their last 12 games, including their last five in a row. As a result, they’ve gone from 12-10 to 21-13, a record good for the top spot in a division that has underachieved as a whole to this point in the campaign.

Reigning AL MVP Jose Abreu is still hitting just .238, but it hasn’t hurt the squad, which has outscored the Royals and Twins by a margin of 43-15 over the past five contests.