{"id":819302,"date":"2026-10-02T00:21:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T00:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/819302\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T00:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T00:21:19","slug":"what-we-learned-from-white-sox-guardians-season-series-ahead-of-alds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/819302\/","title":{"rendered":"What we learned from White Sox-Guardians season series ahead of ALDS"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago White Sox entered the ninth inning of their June 22 game against the Cleveland Guardians leading by one run.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t stay that way for long.<\/p>\n

Patrick Bailey drove in the tying run with a single and later scored on a sacrifice fly to put the Guardians ahead.<\/p>\n

There were more twists and turns to come.<\/p>\n

Column: One city, two teams and plenty of emotions after White Sox and Cubs split wild-card series<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Braden Montgomery walked with one out in the ninth against Guardians closer Cade Smith. Tristan Peters followed with a check-swing double to left field.<\/p>\n

Smith struck out Jacob Gonzalez, bringing Sam Antonacci to the plate with two on and two outs.<\/p>\n

The rookie hit the first pitch he saw back up the middle for a single. Montgomery scored easily, and Peters made it home just ahead of center fielder Daniel Schneemann\u2019s throw for a 6-5 walk-off victory<\/a> for the Sox.<\/p>\n

That was the first meeting of the year between the teams. And it was a sign of things to come.<\/p>\n

The Sox won the season series 7-6, with many of the games decided late. The Guardians took two of three during a crucial September series at Progressive Field on the way to winning the American League Central title<\/a> by one game over the Sox.<\/p>\n

The teams will square off again in an AL Division Series. And if it\u2019s like the regular-season contests, it will be a classic.<\/p>\n

The best-of-five series<\/a> begins at noon Saturday at Progressive Field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a fitting place we want to be,\u201d Sox pitcher Erick Fedde said during Wednesday\u2019s celebration following the AL wild-card series win<\/a> against the Houston Astros. \u201cThat\u2019s a team obviously, chasing and being part of that division race. And we finally get to end that with a battle for the ALDS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is what stood out during the regular-season showdowns and what to look for in the ALDS.<\/p>\n

Rising to the occasion
\n\"WhiteWhite Sox left fielder Sam Antonacci celebrates after hitting a walk-off two-run single against the Guardians on June 22, 2026, at Rate Field. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Some star power was missing in the June 22-24 series at Rate Field, including Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami (right hamstring strain) and Guardians third baseman Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez (left hamate fracture).<\/p>\n

Others rose to the occasion.<\/p>\n

In the series opener, it was Antonacci. The next night, Miguel Vargas hit a tiebreaking solo home run in the sixth inning in a 2-1 victory. Pitching was the story of that game, with Sean Burke and Sean Newcomb<\/a> teaming up to limit the one run on six hits.<\/p>\n

Parker Messick pitched 7 2\/3 strong innings for the Guardians, allowing two runs on three hits with 10 strikeouts. The left-hander, who had a 2.81 ERA in four starts against the Sox this season, is reportedly in line to start Game 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Sox got to Smith again June 24 when Braden Montgomery and Randal Grichuk hit back-to-back home runs with two outs in the ninth to force extra innings. The Guardians wound up winning 4-3 in 10. But the Sox showed, as Grichuk said after the game<\/a>, \u201cWe don\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Displaying resiliency
\n\"WhiteWhite Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the eighth inning against the Guardians on July 4, 2026, in Cleveland. (Nick Cammett\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Each of those three June games at Rate Field were decided by one run. That trend continued over the first two games of the July 2-5 series in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

The Guardians won in walk-off fashion twice, getting a two-run home run from Brayan Rocchio<\/a> in the ninth inning against Grant Taylor for a 6-5 victory on July 2 and a game-winning RBI single<\/a> from Kahlil Watson in the 10th against Newcomb the next night.<\/p>\n

The Sox displayed the resiliency that has been one of the team\u2019s calling cards over the next two games, winning 3-1 and 7-6 to earn a series split<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That ability to bounce back played out again for the Sox during the Aug. 7-9 series at Rate Field. The Sox returned home after being swept by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. They dropped the opener against the Guardians, with Messick allowing two runs over seven innings. It was the first of only two times all year that the Sox had a season-high four-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

The Sox were down by two runs the next night before exploding for a five-run sixth inning on the way to a 6-3 win. They got another big inning Aug. 9, scoring four in the third \u2014 featuring a Colson Montgomery three-run home run \u2014 in a 5-3 victory.<\/p>\n

That toughness \u2014 which showed up again in the wild-card series against the Astros \u2014 will come in handy in the ALDS.<\/p>\n

Free passes will haunt
\n\"WhiteWhite Sox left fielder Sam Antonacci can’t get to the ball on a game-winning double hit by the Guardians’ Brayan Rocchio in the ninth inning Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Cleveland. (Sue Ogrocki\/AP)<\/p>\n

The Sox won the opener of the Sept. 14-16 series 7-3. And they were in good shape to take the second game \u2014 until Rocchio came through again for the Guardians. His fly ball to left field with two outs in the ninth landed just out of Antonacci\u2019s reach for a walk-off two-run double against Taylor, giving the Guardians a critical 7-6 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Sox got a momentary boost the next day with veteran Tommy Pham\u2019s three-run home run in the fifth inning. But Petey Halpin hit a three-run blast as part of a four-run sixth inning for the Guardians, who won 6-3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In both losses, walks hurt the Sox. Bailey walked in the ninth inning Sept. 15. He was lifted for David Fry, who scored the winning run. The Guardians drew four walks in the sixth inning the next day, with three resulting in runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the way to give this team the chance is extra opportunities via errors and walks, and that just bit us there,\u201d Sox manager Will Venable said after the Sept. 16 game.<\/p>\n

The Sox ultimately fell short in their bid for the Central title. But they\u2019ll get another crack at the Guardians on a larger stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great series back and forth all year between us,\u201d second baseman Chase Meidroth said Wednesday, \u201cso it\u2019s going to be a dogfight this next ALDS.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago White Sox entered the ninth inning of their June 22 game against the Cleveland Guardians leading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[13378,6556,18241,5,6080,1001,138,49,2561,51,10448,133,11613,4,2305,73,1448,17709,2003,751,30019,396,99687,99688,99686,2562,998],"class_list":["post-819302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-al-central","tag-alds","tag-american-league-central","tag-baseball","tag-braden-montgomery","tag-chase-meidroth","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-colson-montgomery","tag-erick-fedde","tag-grant-taylor","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-munetaka-murakami","tag-randal-grichuk","tag-sam-antonacci","tag-sean-burke","tag-sean-newcomb","tag-tristan-peters","tag-white-sox","tag-white-sox-guardians-al-division-series","tag-white-sox-guardians-rivalry","tag-white-sox-guardians-series","tag-whitesox","tag-will-venable"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819302","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=819302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}