Chicago White Sox fans have waited 120 years to see a home playoff series-clinching win, and for a brief moment in Game 3 of the ALDS, it looked like the wait was coming to an end.
As Sean Newcomb and Kyle Teel walked to the bullpen to warm up, they were met by a thunderous roar from a sea of more than 40,000 fans dressed in black, in an environment that Teel described to the media after the game as “the loudest I’ve ever played in front of.”
It was a level of excitement that hadn’t been felt on 35th and Shields since 2021, and a scene that was enough to make any fan who had endured the last decade of White Sox baseball emotional, as thousands of rally towels waved and the decibel levels climbed in anticipation of first pitch.
While there was plenty of noise during the pregame festivities, Randal Grichuk gave the crowd another reason to erupt just two batters into the game with a diving catch in left field. Those cheers grew even louder when the White Sox jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the inning, courtesy of a Kyle Teel double that sent Rate Field into a frenzy.
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The White Sox couldn’t have asked for a much better start, which is why it felt like such a gut punch when the Cleveland Guardians forced them to wait at least one more day.
The Guardians pitching staff set a new postseason record with 19 strikeouts in a nine-inning game; White Sox pitchers issued 10 walks, and Cleveland staved off elimination with a 9-3 victory in Game 3 of the ALDS that was far more competitive than the final score indicated.
The crowd brought the energy, but when the biggest moments arrived, the Guardians made the plays the White Sox couldn’t.
Despite the Guardians burning through seven pitchers, every starter in the White Sox lineup struck out at least once. Each of the White Sox’s Nos. 2-6 hitters struck out multiple times, while Colson Montgomery added three more strikeouts from the bottom of the order.
On the other side of the ball, six of the seven White Sox pitchers used — excluding Sean Newcomb, who fired two scoreless innings to open the game — issued at least one walk. Teel certainly didn’t help matters, burning through both of the White Sox’s ABS challenges in the third inning. The pair of failed challenges were especially surprising after Teel had gone 7-for-8 on his previous eight attempts.
In the postseason, every pitch is already under a microscope. But with how closely matched these two teams are, the White Sox’ inability to apply pressure in key offensive situations, while simultaneously giving the Guardians free baserunners, proved to be a recipe for disaster that not even the immaculate vibes could fix.
The Guardians countered the White Sox’s early 1-0 lead with four runs in the third inning off Bryan Hudson and Hagen Smith, a rally that began with a leadoff walk and was capped by a Jo Adell triple.
But, as they have all season, the White Sox appeared to feed off the crowd’s energy and hung around before missed opportunities eventually caught up with them.
Chase Meidroth led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a double, then came around to score after Tristan Peters followed with a nine-pitch at-bat against Guardians left-hander Foster Griffin that ended with an RBI double to cut the deficit in half.
But after catching a break in Game 2, this time it was the Chicago White Sox’s turn to feel the wrath of the baseball gods.
The White Sox immediately gave the run back in the fifth inning, but appeared to be in prime position to tie the game after putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Despite advancing both runners into scoring position, they came away empty-handed after Kyle Teel ripped a 98-mph line drive with a .940 expected batting average straight into the glove of Guardians second baseman Travis Bazzana.
The ball was hit so hard that Miguel Vargas, who was on second base, thought he was going to score on the play. Instead, Bazzana made the catch, and Vargas was doubled off second to end the inning.
The following inning, the White Sox loaded the bases and pushed across a run when Sam Antonacci was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, cutting the Guardians’ lead to 5-3. It marked the first time in franchise history that the White Sox scored a run on a hit-by-pitch.
With Vargas coming to the plate, the White Sox had a golden opportunity to re-establish control of the game. Vargas nearly did just that, ripping a 96-mph line drive down the third-base line, only for a diving José Ramírez to snag it and end the threat.
Those two sequences would mark the final time a White Sox runner would reach base. By the eighth inning, there was still a sense that the White Sox could come back. After all, they had been doing it all season, and they still had a raucous crowd behind them.
But Will Venable made a bizarre decision in the top of the eighth, turning to rookie David Sandlin and setting off a chain of events that took the air out of the building. Sandlin issued a leadoff walk, a recipe for disaster against a Guardians offense that thrives on other teams’ mistakes.
After a Patrick Bailey single and a sacrifice bunt, Sandlin retired Steven Kwan to get within one out of escaping the jam, but Ramírez put a nail in the coffin in the most Guardians way possible — a lazy fly ball with a .010 expected batting average that dropped past a diving Grichuk for a bases-clearing triple.
By the time the Guardians tacked on two more insurance runs off Davis Martin in the ninth inning, Rate Field was a shell of itself, with most of the fans already headed toward the exits.
In the span of nine innings, the White Sox went from believing they might finally end a 120-year wait to watching another opportunity slip through their fingers. Fortunately, this team has proven to have a short memory in the face of adversity and won’t have to wait long for another crack at it.
