Colson Montgomery didn't get named to the American League All-Star team on Saturday night, so he settled for starring in the White Sox's effort to re-tie the American League Central in Cleveland instead.
On the one-year anniversary of his major league debut, Montgomery staked the Sox to an early first inning lead by shanking a Parker Messick fastball off the outer edge for a two-out RBI double down the left field line, plating the newly minted AL All-Star Miguel Vargas after a leadoff walk. Seven innings later, Montgomery broke a 1-all tie for good when lefty reliever Tim Herrin split the plate with a 2-2 sinker that was deposited halfway up the right field concourse, and stood up for the final two innings as the game-altering moment it felt like on contact.
A typically effective Messick outing followed the first-inning outburst, but the Sox lineup made it more laborious for the rookie left-hander than a week and a half earlier, including a 13-pitch battle with Chase Meidroth that ended in a flyout, but nevertheless ensured the fifth inning would be his last. On a night where both sides combined to go 0-for-18 with runners in scoring position, their persistent efforts weren't rewarded until an insurance run in the ninth.
Tristan Peters reached base for the third time on the night by leading off the inning with one of his trademark doubles down the right field line off Matt Festa, and was at third due to an errant pickoff throw before Drew Romo was done following him with a walk. Vargas plated Peters with a pretty well-struck sacrifice fly to deep right to make it 3-1, which blunted the sting of Kyle Teel pushing Romo to second with a single before two more empty at-bats with a runner in scoring position.
That gave a little more breathing room for a straightforward Grant Taylor save in the bottom half. Some recent demons were exorcised with Taylor blowing away Khalil Watson with velocity and recovering from a 3-0 count to Brayan Rocchio to get an easy groundout. Though he still offered up a two-out walk Gabriel Arias to bring the tying run to the plate before David Fry rolled over an 0-2 slider to end the tension.
But it would be dishonest to make the story about Taylor when for the second-straight night, Will Venable got two scoreless innings from an unexpected source. It was a little easier to envision Taylor getting through an inning after watching Brandon Eisert vaporize all six hitters he faced, including the top of the Guardians order in the eighth. Few relievers wins are more clearly earned, even if Sean Burke's night deserved some recognition of its own.
Quibble with the individual results if you have a mind to, but this is the fourth straight start of Burke figuring out how to sit 96 mph all night. On a broad scale, he threw hard and struck out a career-high 11 in six innings of one-run ball. On a moment-to-moment level, it was hard to miss the presence of big velocity in every Burke escape.
Burke got 97 mph in on the hands of Watson to start a bang-bang 3-6-3 double play to escape the first inning scoreless after a pair of one-out singles. When Rocchio led off the second with a single, Burke blew away the next two guys with 96+ mph heat, until Rocchio got impatient with the whole affair and got thrown out by Romo trying to steal third with two outs.
In his most embattled frame, Austin Hedges tied the game at 1 in the fifth when he lifted a middle-middle sinker off the top of the right-center wall, and was immediately followed by Steven Kwan poking a one-out triple into the left field corner. But in a harbinger of fortunate things to come, small ball went against Cleveland as a drawn-in Meidroth easily threw out Kwan at the plate on a Travis Bazzana grounder to second, and Burke hit 99 mph to strike out Chase DeLauter and end the most potent Guardians offensive inning of the night.
Bullet points:
*Vargas became the seventh Cuban-born White Sox player named to the American League All-Star team as rosters were announced Saturday. He was the lone Sox representative, despite Montgomery launching his 22nd home run of the season and Davis Martin being eighth among all MLB pitchers in bWAR. But let's focus on how this honor will force Vargas to talk about his own accomplishments, despite his instincts to avoid it.
this means so much to Miguel Vargas 🥹 pic.twitter.com/HBCbjzssGP
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) July 4, 2026
*Montgomery's blast off Herrin was his eight home run off a left-hander this season, and combined with his first inning double off Messick, he's slugging .596 against same-handed pitching on the season.
*The Sox went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, the Guardians went 0-for-8.
