The requiem for the 2026 White Sox season many of us expected to write as long as six months ago finally did arrive. That it came in October marks this an outstanding season, no matter how flat the finale flopped.
The primary reason for this 2-0 loss? I won’t even give you three guesses.
As much of a nemesis as he is to the White Sox, in this must-win game for Cleveland José Ramírez provided the early but fatal blow, in the fourth inning.
After taking two high strikes and seeing four pitches overall
above the zone, Ramírez shifted to protect mode, shortened up his swing, and dropped down to take a ball off of his toes out to left field for a two-run homer:
Let’s take another look at the outrageously-effective curve that Ramírez golfed out:
As much as you should never tip your cap to Ramírez, on this one, you gotta tip your cap to Ramírez.
Ditto Gavin Williams, who came into Game 5 presumably a bit winded after a surprise “close” of Game 4 in Chicago. Williams absolutely mowed down the White Sox over 5 ⅔ hitless innings. As much as the usual White Sox offensive adjustments when things aren’t going well and the Ks are piling up — that is to say, none — aided GW, he was masterful. Whereas in five previous starts against the White Sox, to a one Williams wore down and got touched up (~4.o0 ERA in 2026 vs. the South Siders).
In a game where Williams would have been forgiven by just scraping by with four or five innings, he went five-plus strong and made the White Sox look as bad as they have all year. And yes, that’s the longest no-hit start in Cleveland postseason history.
However, the plot line between the White Sox and Williams held, as the fireballer could get just two outs into the sixth before a hit batsman, a soft single from Kyle Teel and a walk to Miguel Vargas packed the sacks for Cleveland reliever Eric Sabrowski.
The southpaw was summoned to face Munetaka Murakami, who perhaps was not told Williams was out of the game, because as 12 White Sox had already done against the starter this game, Mune essentially swung through anything below his shoulders for a back-breaking K:
At that point, the White Sox had racked up 13 strikeouts through six innings, somehow closer to hunting their nine-inning playoff game strikeout record of 19 than the Guardians in the run column.
Given the excellent pitching performances from starter Sean Burke and first man in Sean Newcomb, the game was close all the way. Down just 2-0, pretty much any baserunner meant a possible game-changing rally for the White Sox, and by that low bar Chicago “rallied” in both the seventh and eighth. But for every single hit (two, by Tristan Peters and Sam Antonacci), they were sandwiched by two Ks.
In the ninth, the White Sox flirted with history. No, not staging a comeback to avoid becoming one of the few teams in LDS history to blow a series that started 2-0 in their favor.
No, the history they chased was: Most strikeouts in a nine-inning postseason game, a record they themselves owned (wait, I’m being told that record was set … can this be right? … THREE days ago).
At any rate, the only success the White Sox found tonight was in matching that record with Mune’s fourth K of the game, leading off the frame. Benintendi joined Murakami with in the platinum sombrero ring, making it 20 Ks and a new all-time record. And, because why not, Tristan Peters — one of two starters in the lineup who’d to the moment avoided a K — whiffed to set the new bar at 21 strikeouts in a nine-inning game.
I’ll do that math for you: That’s SIX batted-ball outs, 21 outs not put in play.
The winner of the 43rd do-or-die game in LDS history is Cleveland, and with three straight wins to make history and affix the goat horns to the White Sox the Guardians exorcised a lot of their past bad juju.
The White Sox, meanwhile, limp home with serious gaps ripped open on a tremendous season, from pitching bereft of depth to bats bereft of contact.
Changes will be necessary in coming back strong in 2027.
MVP
Sean Newcomb: 2 IP, 2 H, 3 K, 20-of-23 strikes, 4% WPA
Runners-Up
Tristan Peters: 1-for-2, BB, K, 2% WPA
Sam Antonacci: 1-for-4, 0 Ks, -3% WPA
Cold Cat
Munetaka Murakami: 0-for-4, 4 Ks, -18% WPA
Runners-Up
Andrew Benintendi: 0-for-4, 4 Ks, -10% WPA
Chase Meidroth: 0-for-3, 3 Ks, -8% WPA
Colson Montgomery: 0-for-2, HBP, 2 Ks, -1% WPA
Brenton Doyle: 0-for-2, 2 Ks, -7% WPA
