History made: Four first-place teams play on same night in Chicago
The Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals combined to make history Thursday night in Chicago when they played a pair of baseball games in the Windy City.
[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Baseball contest now]
According to STATS, it was the first time in history four first-place teams played in the same city on the same day, which is a quite a coup for baseball fans in Chicago.
The Cubs and Nationals met in Wrigley Field in the opener of a four-game series between the teams with the best records in baseball. The Cubs went into Thursday’s action with the best record at 20-6 and Washington was right behind at 19-8. The Cubs were leading the National League Central by six games and the Nationals were on top of the NL East by 1.5 games.
Meanwhile, the White Sox held the best record in the American League at 19-9 and were leading the AL Central by four games. The Red Sox were a half-game ahead of Baltimore in the AL East at 16-11. The game on the south side was the finale of a three-game series.
This was expected of the Cubs and the Nationals at the start of the season. The Cubs were the preseason favorite to win the World Series and Washington was among the favorites to capture the pennant in the NL. The Cubs feature a strong pitching staff and maybe the deepest team in the major leagues. It starts with ace Jake Arrieta and first baseman Anthony Rizzo. The Nationals’ starting rotation has been stellar and reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper has been playing like he’s going to make a run at winning the award again.
[Elsewhere: How Colby Rasmus learned from the past and found peace in Houston]
The White Sox have been one of the biggest surprises in baseball and the Red Sox are a mild surprise as well. There are good reasons each of these teams were able to put together a strong start to the season and create this historic night. The Red Sox have overcome some pitching issues with the best offense in the AL to this point and the White Sox have been solid on the mound and at the plate with offseason additions contributing and enhancing the overall product in a way that didn’t occur last year.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
The StewPod: A baseball podcast by Yahoo Sports
Subscribe via iTunes or via RSS feed
– – – – – – –
Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo