Polling Place: When dust settles at G-Rate, will Cubs or White Sox have taken series?

Soon, all of baseball’s playoff teams will wipe their slates clean and begin finding out what autumn has in store for them. Heartbreak? Glory? Maybe even a hit or two?

You know who could use a good slate cleaning? The Cubs, for whom offense has been like an unsolvable equation.

“Who benefits more from that than us?” infielder Jason Kipnis said. “I think we’re the No. 1 team, out of any team that’s going to be in the postseason, that’s happy about everybody starting back at zero.”

But before “zero” come 58, 59 and 60 — the final three games of a shortened regular season, against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. The fun started Friday. Is “fun” the right word? The Sox have been having a rough go of it lately, too.

Still, the Sox entered the weekend with a shot at a division title that once seemed very likely to be theirs. The Cubs, despite their struggles that have persisted for weeks, were trying to finally lock down their own division title. This crosstown series definitely has some serious implications.

And so we asked for this week’s “Polling Place,” your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter, a rather obvious question: When the dust settles on Sunday, which team will have won the series? A Cubs sweep? A Sox sweep? Two out of three wouldn’t be bad for either side.

“How is ‘they both lose all three games’ not a choice?” commented @civilitywars.

What a smarty pants.

“I’m just happy that, all things considered, the Cubs and Bears are still playing meaningful games in September!” @BeardownHawkeye wrote.

Bears? Who said anything about the Bears?

On to the polls:

Poll No. 1: The Cubs and White Sox play three games on the South Side this weekend to close out the regular season. What happens?

Upshot: It’s just a shame fans can’t be there to see it. Imagine what that would be like — the last weekend of the regular season, high stakes, high anxiety, two-fisted Goose Island drinkers as far as the eye can see. Sniff. Such a beautiful thought. Still, though, the games are big even without fans and the Sox are, according to our voters, big favorites against their northerly rivals.

Poll No. 2: How do you feel about the Bulls’ hiring of Billy Donovan as coach?

Upshot: The key to life? That’s simple, kids. It’s to be loved at a rate that’s at least 10 points higher than your career winning percentage. Donovan won 60.8% of his games over five seasons with the Thunder. That’s not bad. His teams also went out of the playoffs in the first round each of the last four years. That’s not great. But isn’t it better to have loved and lost in the playoffs than never to have loved at all?

Poll No. 3: Your Bears prediction for Week 3 in Atlanta?

Upshot: The Bears are 2-0. The Falcons are 0-2. Needless to say, the Falcons are three-point favorites. Wait, what? It’s true — and it’s not about the Falcons looking good in their defeats. This is about the Bears looking awful in their victories. More specifically, it’s about quarterback Mitch Trubisky. Isn’t everything about Trubisky?