The White Sox took two of three from the Mets, and they used the same template both times -- a walk-off homer by the slimmest of margins.
On Friday, Jake Rogers deposited a fly ball into the first row behind left center field, just out of the reach of A.J. Ewing, to end it. Today, Tristan Peters gave it a near-mirror image. Wielding the yellow banana bat that he used during the All-Star Game to cap off Players' Weekend, Peters extended on a 3-1 Kodai Senga fastball and sent it flying just right of center field. Ewing had less ground to close, but he couldn't quite time his leap when he got to the fence. He'll be kicking himself for it, too, because the ball bounced off the top of the wall and over the guard rail for yet another game-winning homer.
The Sox now have 11 walk-off victories, and Peters has supplied three of them -- two with hits, one with a walk.
TRISTAN. PETERS. WALK-OFF. HOME RUN. pic.twitter.com/WCYuSvE6kQ
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) August 23, 2026
It's not often that Grant Taylor is the worst White Sox pitcher of the day, and it's usually a bad thing when he is.
He entered with a 1-0 lead after an effective opening job by Sean Newcomb, ideal bulk boy work from Erick Fedde, and the steeliest pitching of Hagen Smith's young career. But while Taylor opened with a humdrum groundout, he gave up a flared single to Carson Benge, and that's when his control unraveled. He walked Luis Robert Jr., then fell behind 3-0 to Jared Young. Young took one sinker down the middle, but when Taylor tried pumping another one past him, Young rifled it back through the box to score Benge and tie the game at 1.
Taylor found the ears on his slider to strike out Francisco Alvarez, but he lost it en route to a walk of Marcus Semien, which loaded the bases for Ewing. Taylor spotted a first-pitch fastball at the top of the zone, which withstood a challenge. But his first attempt at a fastball ended up way inside, and barely missed Ewing's elbow (the first of two close calls Ewing might regret). Having been spared a run-scoring HBP that would've put the Mets in front, Taylor missed with a curveball high, but somehow managed to locate two fastballs at the top of the zone. Ewing fouled back one, but swung under the other, and Taylor left them loaded.
Had Taylor recorded the save in an ordinary fashion, Andrew Benintendi would've been the offensive hero. He was on the wrong side of the narrative halfway through this one, as he followed up his rough night with the bases loaded on Saturday by getting rung up on a Nolan McLean fastball in the middle of the zone to strand three more in the third, foiling the Sox's best opportunity all day.
But Benintendi came to the plate in the eighth with Miguel Vargas on base -- but not in scoring position, and maybe that made the difference. Vargas had singled through the left side off Daniel Duarte, and Benintendi followed by working a 2-0 count. He took a cutter away for a strike, but when Duarte followed with a cutter on the inside corner, Benintendi didn't let it get home. Instead, he opened up and rocketed a line drive off the base of the right field wall. It kicked back past Benge, and that gave Vargas enough time to score all the way from first despite Benge possessing one of baseball's best arms.
That scored the game's first run with one inning to go, and while Braden and Colson Montgomery both struck out to strand pinch-running Luisangel Acuña at third, it put Smith in line for the win after two scoreless innings of relief. He entered with two on and nobody out after Erick Fedde gave up a ground-rule double on a fly ball that sliced away from Sam Antonacci's route, and a walk to Robert. Smith didn't do himself any favors by falling behind Young 3-0. But he finally found the zone with a fastball for a first strike, got Young to foul off a second one, and then executed an ideal two-strike slider that Young swung over for strike three. He then rung up Alvarez on four pitches, then got Semien to flail at a 2-2 backdoor slider off the plate to get out of the inning.
Smith then took care of the eighth all by himself, with an assist from Francisco Lindor. He fell behind 3-0 and should've walked him on four pitches, but he chased a cutter below the zone with his green light, then popped up a fastball off the plate to give Smith the final out.
Fedde did the same thing for Newcomb in the third. After Ewing spoiled a lefty-lefty matchup with an infield single, Fedde entered and promptly induced a double play to set the course for four scoreless innings. Jake Rogers helped his cause by cutting down Young on a stolen-base attempt to end the fourth, but otherwise Fedde used a sweerpo-forward approach that protected a sinker that didn't miss much.
Entering the ninth, Newcomb, Fedde and Smith combined for an impressive line: 8 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K. They had to be that good, because the White Sox weren't able to square up McLean at all through six. Antonacci's opposite-field single in the third was their only hit, but they were at least able to draw four walks and an Antonacci HBP to make him throw 92 pitches, which brought the Mets bullpen into play.
Bullet points:
*Antonacci now owns sole possession of the White Sox's single-season HBP record with 24, on a McLean fastball that barely grazed his pant leg.
*Smith helped his own cause with a nifty cross-body pick on a bouncer back to him.
*Senga dropped to 0-9 on the season, while his ERA rose to 7.79. If there's anybody you'd want to face in a walk-off scenario, that'd be the guy.
