With control of the AL Central hanging in the balance, the upstart Chicago White Sox need all the help they can get to hold off the Cleveland Guardians. The MLB playoffs are only about two weeks away at the time of this writing, which makes Wednesday's series finale between the two teams especially critical. A White Sox win would give them a 1.5-game lead (they have also clinched the tiebreaker), while a Cleveland victory would put it back atop the AL Central, albeit by just half a game.
Enter Tommy Pham.
After the veteran outfielder quite literally made an elevator pitch about why he should be activated to White Sox general manager Chris Getz the night before, the team did so and let him bat cleanup on Wednesday. Uh, what? Please note that Pham
has not played all season and is coming off a recent calf strain. In the White Sox's biggest game of the season so far, this was a "Hail Mary" activation and elevation if there ever was one.
Pham wasted no time making Getz's last-second move look absolutely brilliant when he launched a monster three-run shot to give the White Sox a fifth-inning lead. It was his first hit of the year!
Tommy Pham turns the tide with a HUGE 3-run homer 💪 pic.twitter.com/5MRpw9vt4b
— MLB (@MLB) September 16, 2026
To all you (totally) correct skeptics about bringing up an ice-cold player in the middle of a playoff push, well, you probably shouldn't have doubted Tommy Pham. Shame on you! At least, in this one specific instance, that is.
Who did Tommy Pham replace in the White Sox lineup?
Pham effectively took the place of the struggling Munetaka Murakami, who got the day off.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Tommy Pham delivered on White Sox's Hail Mary start with clutch 3-run homer
