Home Sweet Home on the South Side! Sox move into top Central spot

CHICAGO – The White Sox sit alone atop the American League Central following their 2-1 victory over the Braves Wednesday night at Rate Field.

This is not a misprint. This situation has long since graduated from the cute story angle centered upon the losing team that finally could.

Sure, this young crew is abundantly fun to watch. Even the most traditional and hardened of baseball followers had to let out a “wow” or two following Braden Montgomery’s walk-off home run Monday night in his big league debut. But since a 6-13 start to this 2026 campaign, when some of the young White Sox crew were figuring out April baseball, they are one of the best teams in baseball.

Now the standings support that idea, showing a half-game lead over the Guardians (37-33) and, at 36-31, a two-game edge in the loss column.

“Really proud of the group. It’s meaningful to be ahead, leading the division,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “At the same time, it’s going to be about going out tomorrow and trying to win a ballgame and we understand we have a long way to go. But to be in this spot now is great.”

"We show up and we've got a good group of guys,” second baseman Chase Meidroth said. “We show and work every day. The standard is the standard here and the expectations are what we've got.”

In the second game of this three-game set, facing off against one of the best teams in baseball, the White Sox beat old friend Chris Sale, who also happens to be one of the top pitchers in the game. They scored two in the fourth off a hurler who remains one of the best in White Sox franchise history.

Braden Montgomery doubled for his first right-handed hit to start the fourth. He scored on a single to center from Derek Hill, who swiped second, moved to third on Jacob Gonzalez’s grounder and then came home one out later on Luisangel Acuna’s infield grounder.

Davis Martin didn’t need any more run support in improving to 9-2 on the season. Martin was making his first start since getting roughed up by the Twins on June 2 at Target Field, where he admittedly felt physically exhausted, and struck out six over six scoreless innings.

First place is especially significant to a White Sox organization, having lost 100-plus in each of the last three seasons. Of course, this group is not surprised by where they currently are located.

“No. I mean, it's a lot of these walk-off wins and stuff,” White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery said. “We're not really surprised at all of it because we kind of expected this, and this is what we wanted.

“So it's just us playing what we want to do. It's like last night, got down, but especially here at the Rate, we're never out of games.”

Never would be accurate but also an understatement. The White Sox improved to 22-11 at Rate Field and are 18-3 over their last 21 on the South Side. They are reaching this level of success without first baseman Munetaka Murakami, who is out 4-6 weeks with a right hamstring strain.

They are reaching this level of success without much production from their catchers as a group, with Kyle Teel moving toward another injury rehab assignment to test his right knee. They have done it the last two days without Colson Montgomery, who felt tightness in his back on a swing two weeks ago but went to the trainers with the issue when it started to affect his daily existence.

Colson could have played. But while the White Sox are focused on one day at a time, and have been since Spring Training, they have a target set on accomplishing much more than leading the AL Central in the second week of June.

Venable admitted pregame to looking at the standings regularly but more as a baseball fan. After Meidroth made a final-out running catch on Ozzie Albies’ popup with Eli White on first, Venable will see his team at the top when he glances at those standings Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

“Being a part of ‘24 and ‘25, you just realize how hard it is to come to the park on some of those teams,” Martin said. “But every day when you come through the parking lot and you have a chance to win a game, it really just fires you up. It makes all the days worth it, makes the long road trips worth it.

“We're just having a great time, and you can't do it without this type of clubhouse. We have a bunch of entertainers, we have a bunch of guys that make each other laugh, and it's just like you're super excited to come to the yard every day.”