If Mariners don't sweep the Chicago White Sox, it's going to be considered a failure

There are very few times in baseball that you can head into a series and reasonably expect or even believe that a four-game sweep should happen. Yet, I believe that's where we are when we look at the Mariners and their upcoming series against the Chicago White Sox.

Over the last 22 games, the White Sox have gone 3-19 while being outscored by 57 runs, or 2.6 runs per game. I don't want to portray this as a bad stretch, either, as the White Sox have been plain bad all season. They enter the game with a record of 17-49 and a run differential of -144, or -2.2 per game.

The Mariners have a massive opportunity against the White Sox

Normally I like to go through and highlight certain hitters that the Mariners need to keep an eye on, or talk about some of the pitching matchups that the Mariners are going to see. To me, it's always enjoyable to know who you need to look out for, or who might dice your lineup up. However, it just feels like looking at the ineptitude of the White Sox as a whole is the way to do it.

We know the Mariners have a bad offense. The White Sox are actually worse, currently slashing .217/.279/.342 compared to the Mariners .222/.300/.367. They've gotten 18 fewer homers and 58 fewer RBI from their offense, showing that even though the Mariners are downright bad, the White Sox have been atrocious.

At least the saving grace for the Mariners has been their pitching. They are able to keep them in nearly every game based on that alone. The White Sox pitchers have arguably been the worst in baseball this season, with an ERA of 4.94, a BAA of .252 with a WHIP of 1.43. They're bad all over, too, as their starters are T-28th in ERA and the bullpen is 27th in ERA.

They are facing Erick Fedde and Garrett Crochet in the first and fourth games, who have both been studs. They are also facing a debut from Drew Thorpe in game two and the struggling Jonathan Cannon (5.94 ERA and 1.62 WHIP) in game three.

We know that the Mariners don't have a great offense, but we have seen them do better lately. They hit well against the lowly Angels, and then actually scored a fair amount of runs against a really good Royals pitching staff. This White Sox presents them with a massive opportunity to show out in this four-game set and put the proverbial screws to Chicago.

Yes, I know this feels like a massive jinx waiting to happen. That the Mariners are somehow now going to split the series, or heaven forbid, lose it. The Mariners are 19.5 games better than the White Sox heading into the opener and are, on paper, a much better team. Now, let's just hope that the Mariners come through and do what they should against the White Sox.