Cleveland ace Parker Messick made one mistake, hanging a sinker to Munetaka Murakami on the first pitch of his at-bat in the fourth, with Miguel Vargas on base, and 111 mph and 440 feet later the White Sox had a 2-0 lead. It’s definitely a moment worth savoring:
That would turn out to be all the offense the Sox would need, thanks to excellent bullpen work and lousy Guardians hitting that left the bases loaded in both the third and fourth
and didn’t get anyone on base with fewer than two outs until the seventh. Sox pitchers deserve great credit, of course, but it was the team with playoff experience (and the overwhelming favorite in the series) that in the later innings took to swinging at anything thrown between first and third base and bounced fewer than three times.
Hagen Smith was cruising through his second open of the playoffs, retiring the first eight batters he faced while striking our four. But with two outs in the third inning the southpaw suddenly lost control completely, walking three in a row on 16 pitches. In came Bryan Hudson to get Chase DeLauter to hit a soft liner to end the threat (and pick up an improbable win, because he faced his one batter at the right time).
Next inning it was Anthony Kay coming to the rescue of Jordan Hicks in the same, bases-loaded, two-out situation, getting Chicago nemesis Brayan Rocchio to line to right.
But while those were momentary successes, the heavy lifting was done by Grant Taylor, who came in to start the sixth and just never left. Taylor achieved the seldom-seen (first in the playoffs since 2017) four-inning save, with two hits, no runs and six strikeouts, most of those on pitches that had Guardians flailing at pitches not even in the same area code as home plate.
Oh, yes — the White Sox did score another run, one more in the way of good fortune than good skill. Kyle Teel walked in the seventh and with two outs Colson Montgomery blooped an opposite-field dribbler against a shift that Statcast gave a 5% chance of being a hit. Teel got waved home and was thrown out easily — except Austin Hedges forgot to catch the ball:
That lousy D help from the Guardians helped make up for an excellent theft of a Tommy Pham homer in the sixth by Angel Martinez that led to a double play, with Vargas getting doubled off of first on a play right in front of him:
Today’s win means the White Sox have not trailed at any point in the postseason, and have not even been tied (beyond 0-0) over 27 innings of play.
The Sox have stolen home-field advantage in the series, with Game 2 not until 4 p.m. Central on Monday due to MLB’s inordinate fear of the NFL. The White Sox are not yet saying who will start, though Sean Burke is expected to do the heavy work.
MVP
Grant Taylor: 4 IP, 2 H, 6 K, SAVE, 34-of-42 strikes, 22% WPA
Runners-Up
Munetaka Murakami: 2-for-4, R, HR, 2 RBI, 2 K, two hardest hits of the game, 17% WPA
Anthony Kay: 1 ⅓ IP, BB, K, 10% WPA
Miguel Vargas: 1-for-2, R, 2 BB, terrible baserunning getting doubled off of first, 9% WPA
Cold Cat
Brenton Doyle: 1-for-4, K, GIDP, –10% WPA
Runners-Up
Chase Meidroth: 0-for-4, 2 K, GIDP, -9% WPA
Tommy Pham: 0-for-2, BB, K, LIDP, -8% WPA
