CLEVELAND -- The question no longer seems to be whether the White Sox will emerge victorious in American League playoff action.
It’s now: Will the South Siders ever fall behind?
That may be a bit of an exaggeration just three games into the postseason, but with their 3-0 win over the Guardians in Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Progressive Field on Saturday afternoon, the White Sox still have not trailed in 27 innings played.
In fact, the White Sox have led at the end of 24 of the innings they’ve played since Tuesday’s first pitch in Houston. That’s the most in the first three games of a postseason run in franchise history, and tied for most by any team in the first three games of the postseason over the last 20 years (2019 Yankees and 2017 Dodgers).
They are reaching this level by arguably playing their best baseball in this remarkable season.
“This is when we need to do it,” said shortstop Colson Montgomery, who doubled home a run during the seventh inning. “It’s just postseason baseball. We feel like we are all locked in. I think we are all just going out there and sticking to our plan and our approaches and not trying to be someone we are not.
“From the top down, I felt like we have been controlling the strike zone pretty good. Our relievers and our pitchers, they have just been pounding the zone, not being afraid to throw balls or try to get chase or anything like that, especially trusting the defense.”
Saturday’s dominant performance put the White Sox two wins away from moving on to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2005. The White Sox win also guaranteed two games at Rate Field following Sunday’s off-day and Monday’s contest at Progressive Field, even if Chicago loses to Gavin Williams and the Guardians in Game 2.
Munetaka Murakami, who has done nothing short of re-energize the franchise since arriving from Japan via a two-year, $34 million deal in the offseason, changed the game with one swing of the bat Saturday. The first baseman’s two-run home run, covering a Statcast-projected 440 feet, came after a Miguel Vargas single against rookie Parker Messick to open the fourth.
There wasn’t much more offense for the White Sox, but they didn’t need much more. Once again, the White Sox went with a bullpen game, and once again, it worked to near-perfection. And speaking of perfection, Grant Taylor followed up his career-high 54-pitch effort on Tuesday by picking up the old-school four-inning save.
Taylor struck out six, including Angel Martínez, Nathaniel Lowe and Travis Bazzana on 11 pitches in the ninth. Talk about ending a statement game with a statement moment.
“That's what playoff baseball is about,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “Your big dogs going out there and making big plays.”
“What we did was we just play to our game,” Montgomery said. “I felt like the whole day we were playing to our strengths. Sometimes I feel like in any game, not just the postseason, you can kind of get away from what you do best. That’s why we are having success.”
Even when rookie Hagen Smith walked the bases loaded with two outs in the third inning, Venable summoned Bryan Hudson to retire Chase DeLauter on a routine fly ball to left fielder Randal Grichuk. In the fourth, with the bases loaded again, this time against Anthony Kay, Brayan Rocchio lofted a routine fly ball to right fielder Braden Montgomery to end the threat.
People were wondering if the Guardians would be affected by the weeklong layoff, and if the young White Sox would benefit by continuing to stay in action. But Sean Burke’s regular-season closing words ring prophetic with the on-field excellence shown by the South Siders.
"Our opponent is our opponent,” Burke said. “Our focus is playing our best brand of baseball. If we play our best baseball, it doesn’t matter who our opponent is."
Burke will be on the mound at some point Monday, either as the starter or bulk hurler. Despite Taylor throwing 42 pitches, he might be back out there after Sunday’s off-day.
Win or lose, the White Sox still would be in line to finish a rare home playoff clincher.
“Oh my gosh. It’s going to be awesome,” said Kyle Teel, thinking ahead to home playoff baseball. “I can’t wait to play at home, and the fans are just going to be electric, I already know it. I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I got here. This is just an unbelievable experience and I can’t wait.”