The White Sox have been red-hot as of late, and they are now in must-win territory as apparently no team can beat the Cleveland Guardians. With a three-game stretch against the Colorado Rockies on deck to end the season, there was no reason the South Siders couldn’t sweep the Rockies and put all the pressure on the Guardians to be perfect.
While it was just one game, the White Sox looked like a team that could certainly win the next two and only need one Guardians trip-up to secure the division. Thanks
to a game filled with solo blasts and sacrifice flies, the White Sox won a somewhat normal game on the way to win number 83, 6-1.
While the White Sox have never stopped fighting during games this season, it’s still a heck of a lot easier to win with a lead. That’s why a Miguel Vargas sacrifice fly and a Munetaka Murakami bomb putting the South Siders up 2-0 in the first inning was so critical (although that didn’t completely quell some of the nerves around Rate Field, as TJ Rumfield homered in the top of the second to trim the deficit to one).
Luckily, the White Sox had a stellar starting effort from Sean Burke, taking David Sandlin’s lead from Thursday and going strong into the sixth inning. Another sacrifice fly from Kyle Teel piled it on, before the Blue Mune appeared in the seventh when Murakami hit his second solo shot of the night to increase the lead to three.
Teel would single in another run in the eighth before another Mune rose in the eighth, when Murakami’s single saw the lead increase to five runs.
It certainly wasn’t a pretty game from the White Sox offensively, but real stars come out when they’re needed most. In a must-win game, Murakami showed up in a big way and put the team on his back, along with Teel. The pair drove in five of the team’s six runs and the Rockies once again looked completely lost in all facets of the game.
For a team that I declared “dead” last week after their blown 8-2 lead saw them drop behind Cleveland, they might as well switch mascots with Detroit the way they’ve roared back to life. Even if the White Sox do lose the division, it seems they may be getting hot at just the right time, and usually the hot teams are the ones that win, — not the “best” teams.
It does suck that apparently nobody can beat or even look competent against the Guardians, but at this rate, just one slip from Cleveland grants Chicago a spot in the ALDS and some rowdy home playoff games. If you were to tell any of us that this would be the situation we’d be in at the end of September, every single one of us would take it so let’s embrace the madness.
Here’s to hoping that the Kansas City Royals can look like a competent franchise at some point this weekend.
MVP
Munetaka Murakami: 3-for-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, K
Runners-Up
Kyle Teel: 1-for-3, 2 RBI, R
Sean Burke: 5 1/3 IP, 4 H, ER, BB, 7 K
Cold Cat
Andrew Benintendi: 0-for-4, 3 K
Runners-Up
Colson Montgomery: 0-for-3, K, broke single-season strikeout record
Tristan Peters: 0-for-4
