As a young White Sox blogger, I found watching post-shoulder capsule surgery John Danks strangely liberating. For one turn in the rotation, it wasn't necessary to analyze how a starter's stuff was performing, if they were missing bats or barely escaping waves of hard contact. If Danks got through a quality start, it was a coup. If he was shelled, nothing was uncovered that wasn't already known.
The 2026 White Sox fighting for first place against the Guardians doesn't feel similar, but at the end of a grueling 13-game stretch of schedule, and certainly after a 143-minute rain delay that wiped out both starters after a single inning, there are no style points to really worry about here.
"From MLB’s forecasts and from our forecast, it was clear, and so obviously it wasn't," said Will Venable. "Really disappointing that that happened. It just puts both teams in a really tough spot but. Can't control the weather."
Six White Sox relievers threw eight innings of one-run ball to seal up a series victory, even if Trevor Richards white-knucklin' it against the top of the order--walking two and allowing a run on a scary José Ramírez sacrifice fly--doesn't feel like the ordering Venable will choose come playoff time. Where as six Guardians relievers combined to issue nine walks, which regularly courted a big inning, even if it only wound up showing up once.
"We've been feeling good when we've been getting out there, so I think we've kind of caught up since that long extra inning game," said Sean Newcomb, who got four outs to drop his ERA to 2.70. "[Anthony] Kay going six [innings] the other day was big. We all feel good. It's been a lot of throwing, but it's kind of what we need right now, so we all feel pretty strong."
For a game-changing four-run frame, the bottom of the third inning began inauspiciously for the White Sox, with Brenton Doyle getting thrown out trying to stretch a leadoff double into a triple, and dugout burning a replay challenge toward trying to erase the mistake. But with two outs and the bases empty, Cleveland turned to newly acquired righty Craig Yoho, who has a great changeup, and some trouble getting to it.
The free pass he issued to Miguel Vargas was one of four walks he issued before getting a single out, and was followed by a wild pitch and Randal Grichuk flicking one of those changeups down the third base line to re-tie the game at 2. After another walk, Yoho tried getting ahead of Colson Montgomery with a 1-1 cutter, but it stayed up and out over the plate more than anyone is usually inclined to pitch to the White Sox shortstop, who replied by lining an 110.7 mph go-ahead three-run laser into the right field seats for his team-leading 26th home run.
"You have to be willing to take a step back and self-evaluate what you need to do," said Montgomery, who has endured an awful start to August. "Just took a step back, talked to Joel [McKeithan], talked to [Derek Shomon] We are like 'Let’s look at success, it leaves clues. Let’s go out and check it out and look and see what it is.' It really wasn’t anything too crazy. It was getting myself up early, ready, let my swing and body develop, then just be committed to the fastball."
Watching Steven Kwan single on an 0-2 fastball above the zone seems like it would be a deeply frustrating experience, so it would be understandable if it tweak Davis Martin a little when he did it to leadoff the game. A six-pitch walk to Chase DeLauter followed, and Ramírez lined a grooved first-pitch fastball for a single that opened the scoring when Braden Montgomery mishandled it in right.
The location was still pretty poor on the Nathaniel Lowe sacrifice fly that made it 2-0 Cleveland and the Travis Bazzana lineout that ended the first. Whether it was another instance where Martin could stabilize and delivery five or six innings is lost to the seemingly predictable torrential downpour that followed.
Hagen Smith's major league debut was the first arm out of the chute in the bullpen day that suddenly became necessary. Fans were elated when blew away Brayan Rocchio upstairs to kick off striking out the side in his first inning of work, and fans exhaled when he induced a Rocchio soft lineout to Vargas at third after walking the bases loaded in his second inning of work.
But that's all needless detail. The rookie posted two scoreless innings and left in line for the win.
"The first inning obviously was good, and then second inning fell off a little bit," Smith said. "But glad we got the win, and that's all that really matters."
*Bullet points:
*The Sox didn't burn any challenges until the bottom of the eighth at which Munetaka Murakami lost one on a strike, before Edgar Quero lost one on a 1-0 Richards fastball that was under the zone by a good bit, rendering him helpless to do anything about his 3-2 fastball that nicked the corner.
*Murakami's first-inning RBI double put his on-base streak at 25 games. He had to hold up at third to wait for Vargas' hustle double to drop, which was followed by three-straight strikeouts. That prompted an appearance of the bad-risp tag all on its own, even though the Sox went 4-for-11.
*The game was delayed two hours and 23 minutes by rain, beginning in the top of the second. The paid attendance was still a burly 31,263.
*Strange, but true: Quero and Patrick Bailey, both catchers with a sub-.600 OPS, combined to walk five times. The Sox drew a season-high nine walks. Unfortunately, the eight they issued was not close to a season-high.
*Grant Taylor was unavailable, per Venable.
*At 58-60, the Detroit Tigers are now second place in the AL Central, 3.5 games back.
