{"id":737297,"date":"2026-06-28T00:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T00:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/737297\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T00:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T00:51:15","slug":"jacob-gonzalez-the-latest-hero-for-white-sox-who-beat-royals-2-1-to-finish-first-half-leading-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/737297\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Gonzalez the latest hero for White Sox, who beat Royals 2-1 to finish first half leading division"},"content":{"rendered":"

The White Sox<\/a>, a team that had lost 100 or more games three years in a row, finished the first half of the season 43-38 and leading the American League Central after a 2-1 win Saturday over the Royals.<\/p>\n

The Sox insist they expected something like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody else can be surprised,\u201d starting pitcher Davis Martin said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had the talent. We have the people in the locker room and we have the people in the coaching staff and the support staff. We have everything we needed inside the building and now we\u2019re just putting it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox have gotten to this point because they can win in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n

They can slug, as shown by Friday\u2019s 22-run outburst<\/a> and a season punctuated by the power of Munetaka Murakami, Colson Montgomery and Miguel Vargas. They have turned Rate Field into a true home-field advantage, where they\u2019ve won a franchise-record 10 straight series.<\/p>\n

The pitching hasn\u2019t been as prolific as the offense but there have been bright spots. <\/p>\n

Martin threw 5 1\/3 scoreless innings and moved closer to his first All-Star berth. Despite a recent blip, Grant Taylor has been one of baseball\u2019s better relievers. He was that Saturday, retiring all six batters he faced, striking out four and throwing 18 of 19 pitches for strikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever done that,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cPretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also shown a knack for drama, getting hits in the most important moments and taking advantage of the opponent\u2019s mistakes. They also aren\u2019t reliant one person to come through.<\/p>\n

Saturday was just the latest example, when the biggest at-bat came from Jacob Gonzalez.<\/p>\n

The 2023 first-round pick, Gonzalez came into the year after slipping down the Sox\u2019 prospect rankings. Gonzalez revived his career in Triple-A, and was called up when Murakami went on the injured list in late May with a right hamstring strain.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez\u2019s game-winning single past Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and a drawn-in Royals infield was the Sox\u2019 seventh walk-off hit of the season from the seventh different player, including four rookies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s special, and it seems fitting for our group,\u201d manager Will Venable said. \u201cWe talk about [that] every night, that we\u2019re getting contributions throughout the lineup, every guy that steps on the mound, it\u2019s coming from everywhere every single night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez said the walk-off hit was the first of his life. He never had one in the minor leagues, college baseball or even when he was a youngster.<\/p>\n

\u201cNope,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox capitalized on a crazy \u2013 and painful \u2013 Royals mistake.<\/p>\n

With no outs and runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth, Braden Montgomery bunted to between home and third base. Kansas City reliever Daniel Lynch IV fielded the ball and fired it to third baseman Nick Loftin to try for a force. Loftin couldn\u2019t make the catch and was hit in the midsection and had to leave the game.<\/p>\n

Two batters later, the Sox had won again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother series win,\u201d Venable said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do, stack as many of those up as possible. Obviously, getting this one is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now with half a season to go, the question isn\u2019t whether the Sox will lose 100 games or continue their three-year run of futility.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about whether the Sox are halfway to a division title that seemed improbable to anybody not in their clubhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my goal. That\u2019s the goal of the rest of the clubhouse,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cWe want to be playing in October and we want to play as long as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The White Sox, a team that had lost 100 or more games three years in a row, finished…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,4,396,2562],"class_list":["post-737297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-mlb","tag-white-sox","tag-whitesox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116824996812396888","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}