With a second opportunity to seal the series at home, the White Sox (84-78) laid an egg against the Guardians (85-77), who tied the series with a 9-5 victory. The best-of-five series of the only ongoing Division Series is tied at two, and the only remaining game will happen in Cleveland.
Left-handed pitcher Hagen Smith, 23, got the start for the South Siders. Smith issued a six-pitch walk to Steven Kwan to open the game, but he retired José Ramírez with a fly out to medium-deep center. From there,
Smith nearly got out of the first inning with a modest 11-pitch workload. The White Sox had a chance to turn a 3-6-1 double play when Chase DeLauter hit a grounder to first. Murakami made a quick throw to second, but on what was turning out to be a close play at first, Smith failed to handle Colson Montgomery’s return throw. As a result, DeLauter was safe at first.
Jo Adell proceeded to work an eight-pitch walk to extend the inning, and Nathaniel Lowe drew yet another eight-pitch walk. That increased Smith’s pitch count to 27, and the bases were suddenly loaded with two outs. In addition, Kyle Teel used a challenge on the 3-2 pitch to Lowe that missed the bottom of the zone by 2.2 inches, not a wise challenge. At that point, Erick Fedde entered the game for his first appearance of the series. Fedde’s task was to retire Angel Martínez, and on a 1-2 sweeper, he did just that. Martínez chased the sweeper in the dirt, and the threat was gone. The crowd for this blackout game collectively exhaled and cheered.
Talented left-handed pitcher Parker Messick, 25, got off to a strong start against the White Sox, retiring three of four batters he faced in the first. The only White Sox hitter to reach was Miguel Vargas, who drew his sixth walk of the series. Vargas drew that walk with two outs, and Messick struck out Murakami to strand Vargas at first.
Fedde got through the top of the second without drama, and things appeared to be looking up when Tommy Pham drew a leadoff walk. However, Brenton Doyle looked at a 3-2 fastball that caught plenty of the plate, Teel chased a changeup in the dirt, and Braden Montgomery struck out swinging. Montgomery got ahead in the count at 2-0, and the third pitch was incorrectly called a strike. Montgomery thought of challenging the pitch, but understandably being cautious about potentially using the second ABS challenge, he held off. Montgomery struck out two pitches later.
After another strong inning by Fedde in the top of the third, the White Sox offense got down to business in the bottom half. Colson Montgomery hit a soft grounder back to the mound. Messick attempted to field the ball with the glove behind his back, but he could not gather it cleanly. The ball squirted off to the side, and Montgomery had an infield single. Chase Meidroth followed with a double to the left field corner. Montgomery advanced to third, and the White Sox had a pair in scoring position with no outs. Randal Grichuk struck out swinging at a fastball above the zone, but Vargas worked an excellent plate appearance to draw a seven-pitch walk and load the bases. In a high-leverage spot, the stage was set for Murakami, who also displayed an excellent batting eye by drawing a six-pitch walk to force in the game’s first run. With the boisterous crowd going wild, Messick was removed from the game with the bases loaded and one out. Right-handed reliever Shawn Armstrong took over to face pinch-hitter Sam Antonacci, who replaced Pham. On Armstrong’s first pitch, Antonacci took advantage of a breaking ball that caught a large part of the plate and lined it toward right-center. DeLauter ran it down, so Antonacci had to settle for a sacrifice fly, but that was enough to double the lead. Armstrong got Doyle to line out, but the damage was done. The White Sox led by a score of 2-0 after three, and Cleveland’s ace was already out of the game.
After a quiet fourth inning, the Guardians offense came to life in the fifth, finally managing to put themselves on the board. Catcher Patrick Bailey entered the game as a pinch-hitter and launched a solo homer against Fedde, who had been cruising up until that point. After a line out by Brayan Rocchio and a single by Kwan, Fedde’s strong outing was over with a runner on first and one out. Jordan Hicks took over on the mound and got a favorable call on the first pitch he threw to Ramírez. However, Ramírez was expecting another high fastball, and this time, he turned on it and drove it over the wall in right-center. Just like that, the Guardians had a 3-2 lead and plenty of momentum.
The White Sox were not behind for long. Meidroth added to his strong performance with a leadoff walk, and although Tristan Peters struck out, Vargas drew yet another free pass. That prompted a pitching change, as Tim Herrin replaced Armstrong on the mound. That move nearly backfired immediately in spectacular fashion, as Herrin’s first pitch to Murakami was a hanging curveball that Murakami crushed. Off the bat, it looked like it could be trouble, but Murakami was barely early on it, and the ball drifted foul down the right field line. Two pitches later, however, Murakami lined a single to left to load the bases. Up to the plate stepped Antonacci, who was unbelievably hit by another pitch. Antonacci seems to be a magician when it comes to HBPs, and this was his fourth one already this postseason. This HBP forced in the tying run, and the White Sox still only had one out. From there, Doyle got the job done with a sacrifice fly to drive in Vargas, and suddenly, the White Sox were back in front, 4-3.
The back-and-forth battle continued in the sixth, when Anthony Kay took over on the mound for the White Sox. After retiring Lowe to open the inning, outs were difficult for Kay and the White Sox to collect. Kay hit Martínez, who proceeded to steal second despite an accurate throw by Teel. With Martínez on second, Bazzana hit a liner to right. Braden Montgomery appeared to have a beat on it, but he could not track it down. Martínez scored, and Bazzana parked at second with a double to tie the game at four. At that point, with the game being in the balance, Grant Taylor took over.
Taylor entered the game as the MVP of the series with +3.42 cWPA (Championship Win Probability Added). Taylor relinquished that spot with this outing, which went as poorly as it could have gone. The first batter against Taylor was Bailey, who poked a grounder through the left side for a go-ahead RBI single. That put the Guardians ahead, 5-4, and they were not done. Taylor issued back-to-back walks to Rocchio and Kwan to load the bases for Ramírez. Taylor got Ramírez to hit a curveball into the ground, and it appeared the White Sox would be able to pick up at least one out. However, Meidroth, who was playing in, did not field it cleanly, and everyone advanced 90 feet safely. From there, the situation got out of hand. DeLauter drove in an insurance run with a single, and Adell continued his attack on White Sox pitching with a two-run single. Incredibly, Adell became the eighth consecutive Guardian to reach base safely, and the score was 9-4. Finally, Taylor’s nightmarish outing was over after failing to retire any of the six batters he faced.
After the dust of that top of the sixth inning settled, the game intensity plummeted, which is not overly surprising, given Cleveland’s lead. What was surprising, however, was that after that bizarre sequence, nobody scored again until the bottom of the ninth. Part of that was because Cleveland put Cade Smith in the game to open the bottom of the eighth, even though Cleveland had a five-run lead. Smith shut the White Sox down in the eighth, but the Vargas got the best of Smith in the ninth, launching a solo homer to open the frame.
That cut the deficit to four, but the South Siders were still deep in the woods. Smith proceeded to walk Murakami before being pulled after 31 pitches. Another surprising development occurred when Gavin Williams took over on the mound in relief of Smith. Antonacci was the first batter to face Williams, and he singled to bring the potential tying run to the on-deck circle. As a result, there was a glimmer of hope for the White Sox, who had runners on first and second with no outs in a 9-5 game. However, Williams got pinch-hitter Andrew Benintendi to chase a couple of breaking balls in the dirt for the first out, and Williams got into a groove from there. Teel worked an intense plate appearance, but on the eighth pitch, Teel grounded into a force out for the second out of the inning. With the potential tying run still in the on-deck circle, Braden Montgomery hit a soft liner to left that appeared to have a chance of falling for a single. However, Kwan, who has won four Gold Gloves, got a good jump on the ball to make a nice catch. As a result, Williams iced the game, though he needed 18 pitches Cleveland surely didn’t want to burn.
The White Sox will be back in action on Saturday in Cleveland at 7 p.m. CT. This time, there will be no wiggle room, as the winner of that game will take the series and face the Rays (98-64) in the ALCS. TBS/HBO Max and TruTV will televise Game 5, and WMVP 1000 AM will have the radio coverage. We will see you then for a crucial matchup.
MVP
Sam Antonacci (PH-DH): 1-for-2, HBP, 2 RBI, K, 0.18 WPA
Runners-Up
Erick Fedde (RHRP): 3 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 K, 0.12 WPA
Bryan Hudson (LHRP): 1 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K, 0.02 WPA
Tyler Davis (RHRP): 2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K, 0.01 WPA
Munetaka Murakami (1B): 1-for-3, RBI, 2 BB, SB, K, 0.17 WPA
Chase Meidroth (2B): 1-for-4, 2B, BB, 0.13 WPA
Miguel Vargas (3B): 1-for-2, HR, RBI, 3 BB, SB, 0.09 WPA
Colson Montgomery (SS): 2-for-4, K, 0.03 WPA
Cold Cat
Grant Taylor (RHRP): 0 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 0 K, -0.43 WPA
Runners-Up
Jordan Hicks (RHRP): 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K, -0.22 WPA
Anthony Kay (LHRP): 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 K, -0.19 WPA
Hagen Smith (LHSP): 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 3 BB, 0 K, -0.02 WPA
Braden Montgomery (RF): 0-for-5, 4 K, -0.12 WPA
Kyle Teel (C): 0-for-4, BB, 2 K, -0.06 WPA
