Yesterday the White Sox were eliminated from winning the AL Central, as they lost 9-6 to the Colorado Rockies, while the Cleveland Guardians took care of business against the Kansas City Royals.
There are many, many games that you can look back at in the month of September that cost them the division, but fortunately they were able to still secure the third AL Wild Card spot. Unfortunately for the White Sox, the divisional win would have got them a bye and a chance to rest all their pitchers. Now, the White Sox will have a quick turnaround and play game 1 on the road on Tuesday.
The White Sox will play the winner of the AL West, which will either be the Houston Astros or the Texas Rangers. Unfortunately for the Rangers, the Astros have the tiebreaker so they will need to win and Houston to lose to make it in.
We will take a look to see how the White Sox fared against both potential opponents this season, as they played two series against each team. We will first take a look at Houston, the likely opponent come Tuesday.
🔥 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel to hear Chicago legends tell stories you’ve never seen in headlines — real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.
The White Sox played Houston seven times this year, with Houston taking the season series five games to two. Right off the bat, that isn’t a great sign for the White Sox, as even with the Astros struggling this year, they seem to have our number.
Despite the Astros winning 5 games in the series, they only had a +3 run differential, scoring three more runs than the White Sox. However, that is slightly inflated for the White Sox, as they did win one of the games 12-3.
First Series (July 24-26)
In the first game of the series, the White Sox had a 5-0 lead going into the 6th inning, with Davis Martin cruising. Unfortunately, it completely unraveled as he and Bryan Hudson combined to give up 8 runs in that inning, eventually dropping the game 9-5. This was a very winnable game that they completely blew.
In game 2, Sean Burke cruised for 6 innings allowing just 2 earned runs. However, Hunter Brown of the Astros was better, as he had 7 scoreless and the White Sox dropped the game 4-1.
In game 3, the bats came to life and the Sox scored 12 runs. They hit 5 homers with Munetaka Murakami hitting two of them.
This was a series they should have won if they didn’t have a total collapse in the first game. But, the starting pitching was good for the most part and the bats were on for two out of the three games.
Second Series (August 31- September 3)
The White Sox then played a 4 game series with the Astros at the beginning of September, where they dropped the series 3-1.
In game 1, Anthony Kay gave up 6 runs and the bats were quiet outside of Colson Montgomery, as we dropped the game 6-3.
In game 2, Sean Burke was masterful and threw 5 and 2/3rds innings of scoreless baseball, while Colson Montgomery and Randal Grichuk both had 2 RBIs, leading the Sox to a 5-1 victory.
In game 3, they had just 3 hits and lost 2-0 despite a scoreless start from Davis Martin.
In game 4, the Sox lost 6-2, as Luis Castillo gave up 6 runs in 4 innings, which never gave the Sox a chance to win the game. The Sox did have 7 hits, but they were only able to muster 2 runs.
This series was right when the White Sox started to sputter in September. The pitching wasn’t good and the bats were quiet. As the month went on, those were both corrected, as the White Sox have played much better than they did earlier in the month.
Wild Card Outlook
Overall, the Astros took it to the White Sox this season and are definitely the harder matchup for the Sox. Hopefully the Rangers can pull it off and win the division, as they played much better against the Rangers.
On the bright side, Sean Burke has had 2 stellar starts and Davis Martin had one great and one collapse after 5 strong innings, which could bode well for two of the games in the series. If the White Sox want a chance at advancing, they are going to need everyone on their A game or this series could get ugly quick.
Perhaps the biggest advantage the Astros have is their playoff experience. They have many players on their team with multiple World Series appearances, while the White Sox have just a few players who have even played in the postseason. If they can limit the damage from Yordan Alvarez and take good at-bats, they’ll have a chance, but that may be a tough task to do.
