CLEVELAND -- Where were you in 1906?
Since anyone born in that magical time would be a robust 120 at this point, clearly nobody was around. But it was that year, on Oct. 14, to be exact, when the White Sox toppled the Cubs at South Side Park to win the World Series in six games.
That was the last playoff-clinching victory for the White Sox at home. Until now, it was their only potential playoff clincher at home. But that statistic could be updated Wednesday at Rate Field.
Behind a three-run sixth and stellar pitching from Sean Burke against a scrappy Guardians offense, the White Sox claimed a 4-3 victory on Monday at Progressive Field. It was their fourth straight victory to open the 2026 postseason and gave them a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five American League Division Series.
In all best-of-five postseason series, teams with a 2-0 lead have gone on to win the series 83 of 93 times (89%). Teams that have won the first two games on the road in Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format have gone on to win the series 17 of 19 times (also 89%). The last time a team rallied from an 0-2 hole in a best-of-five series came in the 2017 ALDS, with the Yankees advancing after dropping the first two games at Cleveland. The last team to rally after losing the first two at home was the 2015 Blue Jays in the ALDS against the Rangers.
One victory on Wednesday or Thursday would send the White Sox to the ALCS for the first time since 2005, when they finished 11-1 in the postseason and won the World Series. That championship playoff run opened with a 3-1 stretch before the White Sox rattled off eight straight wins.
Miguel Vargas started the big sixth on Monday with a single to left after walking his first two times against Gavin Williams. Vargas was the only player who had consistently good plate appearances against the Cleveland right-hander, who struck out 11 over five-plus innings.
Munetaka Murakami moved Vargas to second on a grounder against reliever Erik Sabrowski, before pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk drew a four-pitch walk. A wild pitch moved the runners up a base each, but Sabrowski was on the precipice of escaping courtesy of Tommy Pham’s short fly to left.
Braden Montgomery canceled that escape. The switch-hitting rookie lined an opposite-field double down the right-field line to score two and give the White Sox a 3-2 advantage. Chase Meidroth followed with a run-scoring single off Hunter Gaddis.
Cleveland scored two in the first off Anthony Kay and Sean Newcomb, marking the first time the White Sox trailed this postseason after 27 innings. They had led for 24 of those 27. But the Guardians did relatively little offensively the rest of the way against Burke, who struck out six and walked one with one hit and one run allowed over 5 1/3 innings.
Grant Taylor replaced Burke after a two-out Chase DeLauter single in the eighth, even after throwing four innings on Saturday, and Jo Adell greeted the White Sox closer with a first-pitch triple, just missing a game-tying home run in left-center. Nathaniel Lowe lined out to left on the next pitch to end the inning.
Both upcoming games at Rate Field, if necessary, are already sellouts. White Sox fans have been waiting for such a moment since 2021, when they last had a home playoff game, and will be re-enacting the Blackout theme despite first pitch coming at 3 p.m. CT.
White Sox nation has been waiting 120 years for this sort of history to be made in Chicago.
“Shout out to all the fans that stuck with us, rolled with us, stuck with us through the struggles,” said catcher Kyle Teel, who scored the White Sox first run off Williams. “And now we're doing big things, and just to have the opportunity to play in front of them and showcase what we're about and play to win a ballgame is just really special.”