Upside down

 Now comes October, the month of ghosts and goblins and nature ablaze, and already it is both spectacular and strange. Rude Christmas has shoved its way onstage two months early, speaking of strange. And speaking of spectacular, in our neighborhood the tree by which I mark autumn's advance has gone orange and red.

Spectacular and strange. Which I guess covers this, on October 1: The Cubs are done playing baseball, and the White Sox aren't.

Who saw that coming, way back in April?

Who saw the Cubs, who've made the playoffs six times and won a World Series in the last decade, bowing out before the White Sox, who were coming off three straight 100-loss seasons?

It's all a journey to the upside-down from "Stranger Things," and mostly the Sox are the culprits. No one figured the Pale Hose, who lost a modern-day record 121 games two seasons ago and followed it with a 106-loss season in 2025, would make an astonishing 24-game improvement and miss winning their division by one measly game. And then go on to sweep the Houston Astros in the wild-card round.

But that's what happened.

Won the opener of the three-game set 6-3, the Sox did. Clinched the sweep yesterday with a 7-3 win. Outscored the 'Stros 13-6 and raked Houston pitching for 19 hits in the two games.

Meanwhile, the Cubs ...

Ay-yi-yi.

Lost the first game out in San Diego 8-0, managing just three hits. Lost the clincher last night 4-1, managing just five more. So in two games, MLB's scoring-est team was outscored 12-1 on just eight hits. 

Even worse: The top of the Cubs order -- Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alex Bregman, Matt Busch and Seiya Suzuki -- were a combined 2-for-27 in the wild card. And PCA and Bregman, the table-setters, were a combined 0-for-14.

Oh, my.

Anyway ....

Anyway, off the northsiders go, despite having won a combined 181 games the last two seasons. And on the southsiders go, despite having lost a combined 180 games in the same span.

October the spectacular. October the strange.