Advantage

The White Sox don’t win 4-3 against the Red Sox the way they did last night if the game were at Fenway Park instead of the South Side. Not if those 34,000-plus fans are rooting for the other side. Start with Jose Abreu, whose three-run homer in the third started the scoring. Seventeen of his 29 homers have come at home. You think he doesn’t like hitting in front of a cheering crowd? On the road, this turns into a 5- or 6-4 loss with Boston scoring in both the eighth and ninth innings, just like they did in the seventh. On the road, that walk Craig Kimbrel gave up with one out in the eighth finds a way to score because the home fans all but demand it. On the road, the leadoff single Liam Hendriks gave up in the ninth finds a way to score because the crowd wills it. Those runs didn’t score because the home crowd said so, yelled so. With proof like this, you’d think the White Sox would show more urgency in securing home-field advantage for as long as they could. Instead, we get stories about how Tim Anderson is feeling better every day but just isn’t ready to come off the IL quite yet. Like the man from Tampico once asked, if not now, when?