{"id":803476,"date":"2026-09-12T22:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T22:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/803476\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T22:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T22:18:17","slug":"chicago-white-sox-state-of-the-high-stakes-al-central-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/803476\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago White Sox: State of the high-stakes AL Central race"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2014 Looming larger than the Gateway Arch that serves as the backdrop of the current series against the St. Louis Cardinals are the upcoming three games the Chicago White Sox have against the Cleveland Guardians.<\/p>\n

The first-place Sox entered Saturday holding a slim half-game lead over the second-place Guardians in the American League Central. The teams meet for the final time in the regular season Monday through Wednesday at Progressive Field.<\/p>\n

While a wild-card spot also could be in play, all attention is on the division race.<\/p>\n

Triple-A arms Drew Thorpe, Noah Schultz and David Sandlin ready if Chicago White Sox call for the stretch run<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to win the division because we feel like we are the best team in the division,\u201d Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery said before Friday\u2019s game against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. \u201cThat\u2019s what should happen \u2014 you feel like you are the best team in your division or things like that, you feel like you should win it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also, we have to go out there and take it. Nobody is going to fold, nobody is going to let us run off and have all this stuff. We have to earn all this and we are all well aware of that. We just sit back and see what we are made of. I feel like we are going to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Sunday\u2019s series finale against the Cardinals, the Sox (75-72 entering Saturday) will have 13 games left in the regular season. Only one of four remaining opponents has a winning record \u2014 the Guardians at 75-73.<\/p>\n

The Sox are 6-4 against the Guardians this season. Each of the first five games were decided by one run, with two going to 10 innings.<\/p>\n

The Sox won two of three during the June 22-24 series at Rate Field. That included a walk-off two-run single by Sam Antonacci<\/a> against Cade Smith in the ninth inning in the series opener.<\/p>\n

The teams split the four-game series July 2-5 at Progressive Field. The Guardians won in walk-off fashion in the first two games, including a Brayan Rocchio two-run home run in the ninth off Grant Taylor for a 6-5 victory<\/a> in the series opener.<\/p>\n

The Sox rebounded to win the final two of the series.<\/p>\n

\"FansFans cheer in the left-field bleachers after a Munetaka Murakami solo home run against the Guardians on Aug. 8, 2026, at Rate Field. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The Sox bounced back again after dropping the first game of the Aug. 7-9 series at Rate Field, winning the final two contests.<\/p>\n

And now comes the crucial September series. The Guardians were 6-5 this month entering Saturday, gaining ground while the Sox began September with a 3-6 record.<\/p>\n

After the series against the Guardians, the Sox finish against three teams well under .500 in the Detroit Tigers (68-79), Kansas City Royals (66-82) and Colorado Rockies (55-92).<\/p>\n

The Sox play host to the Tigers for four games at Rate Field on Sept. 17-20. The Sox hold a 6-3 lead in the season series, including a three-game sweep in the most recent matchup Aug. 14-16 at Comerica Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Sox travel to Kansas City, Mo., on Sept. 22-24 for their final road games of the regular season. The Sox are 7-3 against the Royals this season, but the teams haven\u2019t squared off since late June.<\/p>\n

The Sox host the Rockies for the final series of the regular season Sept. 25-27. The Rockies have the worst record in baseball.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoWhite Sox second baseman Chase Meidroth celebrates at first base after his two-run single against the Guardians on Aug. 8, 2026, at Rate Field. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows what\u2019s ahead of us,\u201d starter Anthony Kay said after Friday\u2019s 7-3 loss<\/a>. \u201cWe still have control of our own destiny and got to keep chipping away each day. Just keep playing our style of baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardians will have 12 games left on the schedule after they conclude their three-game series Sunday against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.<\/p>\n

In addition to the three games against the Sox, the Guardians are home for three games against the Athletics (Sept. 18-20) and then go on the road to face the Boston Red Sox (Sept. 22-24) and Royals (Sept. 25-27).<\/p>\n

The Guardians won two of three against the Athletics (60-88) in early May. The Red Sox (80-68) are currently in the second AL wild-card spot. The Guardians dropped two of three to the Red Sox in late May. The Guardians and Royals have split the 10 games in their season series.<\/p>\n

As the days dwindle down, the Sox are aiming to maintain the same mindset that brought them to this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to keep it as normal, because normal has got us into this position,\u201d manager Will Venable said Friday. \u201cBut you know that there\u2019s a lot of different things impacting you that are going to make it difficult to feel normal. I think everyone is aware of the impact of each one of these games. Everyone is aware of the situation that we\u2019re in, the implication of these results to what our ultimate goal is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can say that we want things to be normal and certainly having an environment that is light and supportive and fun to come to, like it has been the whole year, is something that\u2019s important. But there\u2019s just a lot of things working against you to keep things normal. For us it\u2019s just acknowledging those things, being aware of them and just also understanding that we\u2019re in a great spot. We\u2019ve put ourselves in a great spot by going about our business a certain way. We want to keep doing that. We\u2019ll handle the additional pressure by making sure that we\u2019re playing for each other and that we have levity and an environment that guys are still feeling comfortable and confident being in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS \u2014 Looming larger than the Gateway Arch that serves as the backdrop of the current series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[98089,5,138,49,2561,51,4,2305,396,98090,97978,2562,998],"class_list":["post-803476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-al-central-showdown","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-white-sox","tag-white-sox-guardians-series-white-sox-playoff-race","tag-white-sox-magic-number","tag-whitesox","tag-will-venable"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117260393466862009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803476","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=803476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}