If nothing else, the White Sox are the only team that can say it pulled off an upset this October.
Even then, the White Sox had a better record than the team they ousted in the Wild Card Series, but in terms of seeds, their victory over No. 3 Houston as the No. 6 seed in the American League registered as the only non-chalk outcome in the postseason:
- No. 6 White Sox over No. 3 Astros
- No. 4 Yankees over No. 5 Red Sox
- No. 3 Braves over No. 6 Phillies
- No. 4 Padres over No. 5 Cubs
- No. 2 Guardians over No. 6 White Sox
- No. 1 Rays over No. 4 Yankees
- No. 2 Dodgers over No. 3 Braves
- No. 1 Brewers over No. 4 Padres
- No. 1 Rays over No. 2 Guardians
- No. 1 Brewers over No. 2 Dodgers
It also provides a small measure of comfort that the Rays seemed like the best team in the American League just about the entirety of the season, and they dispatched the Guardians in a fairly orderly fashion. Sure, they fell behind 1-0 and 2-1 in the Series, but Tampa Bay could match Cleveland in run prevention while being a clear tier above in run production, and more or less played out as such.
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I don't think there's a single decision that Stephen Vogt could've made to change the tenor of the series, but the way the Rays kicked Game 6 out of reach made me wonder if he regretted his usage of his best relievers over the course of the previous 10 games.
Cade Smith entered in the seventh for his ninth appearance in Cleveland's 11 postseason games, promptly walked Liam Hicks, then gave up a two-run shot to Junior Caminero on a dangling splitter that was theoretically a little off the plate inside, but still enough of a hanger for Caminero to muscle it off the foul pole in left. That gave the Rays a 5-1 lead, and after the Guardians let Ian Seymour hand them back those two runs with a walk and HBP with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth, the similarly overworked Hunter Gaddis followed the same script: walk to Taylor Walls, blistered homer to Yandy Díaz. That was all she wrote.
I'd been wondering if Vogt would pay a price for using Gaddis and Smith in situations like Games 3 and 4 of the ALDS, where the high-leverage crew came out to see four-, five- and six-run leads across the finish line, instead of entrusting lesser-but-still-talented pitchers with the kind of situations with which they'd been entrusted over the previous 162 games. Maybe there was a toll, but with Caminero and Díaz being involved, maybe excellent hitters just happened to beat quality relievers.
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When Brayan Rocchio came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs of a 5-3 game after Seymour's disastrous three-batter appearance in the eighth inning, I was pretty sure new reliever Kevin Kelly wasn't going to throw him a fastball. They'd probably seen how the White Sox failed against Rocchio during the regular season with fastballs, then neutralized him in the postseason with breaking balls in similarly close-and-late situations.
Sure enough, Kelly, who threw his changeup 35 percent of the time to lefties during the regular season, went 3-for-3 against Rocchio, and to increasingly hapless visuals.
Rocchio ended up going 5-for-35 with no extra-base hits and nine strikeouts against three walks this postseason.
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As much as the White Sox seemed to pull one over on the Rays by straight-up purchasing Tristan Peters from Tampa Bay back in December, the Rays engineered a similar heist with Cam Booser. Sure, maybe there wasn't a direct transaction between the two teams, but Booser went from the White Sox to the Rays without a stop in between, and Chicago received nothing in return.
A quick summary of Booser's history, for those who weren't paying attention during a third consecutive 100-loss season: The White Sox acquired him from the Red Sox for 18-year-old DSL pitching prospect Yhoiker Fajardo in December 2024. Booser was entering his age-33 season, but his scenic route to the big leagues left him with six seasons of team control if his encouraging rookie season with the Red Sox could be trusted.
Instead, Booser took a big step back, posting a 5.52 ERA over 39 games. His walk and home run rates ballooned, and he suffered a shoulder strain in the middle of it. Nothing went right, which is how the guy who opened the season in the highest-leverage situation was released after it. That came as a mild shock, if only because he had options remaining, and the White Sox went out of their way to bring him into the organization.
The Rays signed him to a minor league deal this past January, and then used one of those options when they added him to the 40-man roster in late March even though they assigned him to Triple-A Durham for Opening Day. After biding his time for two months with the Bulls, Booser finally got his break in early June, and he ended up being one of the best left-handed relievers in baseball over the remainder of the season.
The regular-season turnaround was remarkable...
| Year | G | IP | HR/FB | BB% | K | ERA | FIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 39 | 31 | 16.7 | 13.3 | 24.5 | 5.52 | 6.26 |
| 2026 | 42 | 41 | 9.6 | 3.9 | 29.6 | 1.98 | 2.93 |
... and it's carried over to the postseason, as Booser retired all five batters he faced in Game 6. He's now thrown 4 ⅔ scoreless innings, allowing just a single and a walk while stranding all four runners he's inherited.
The Tampa Bay version of Booser continued lowering his arm slot while reemphasizing his cutter, which Booser had downplayed in favor of a sweeper with the White Sox. Statcast called Booser's sweeper his best performing pitch in Chicago, so perhaps they were right to explore its potential, but for whatever reason, the old/new mix serves him so much better.
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The TBS cameras showed Tyler Glasnow and Randy Arozarena often enough that their presence at Tropicana Field shifted in my brain from "kinda neat" to "kinda strange." They were big parts of the last Rays team to win the AL pennant, sure, but they're both employed by other teams, with Glasnow's Dodgers only being ousted from the postseason a couple days earlier. It struck me almost like they were returning to their alma mater for homecoming, rather than watching a fellow MLB team.
Imagine the White Sox advancing to the ALCS this month and seeing some combination of Carlos Rodón, Garrett Crochet, Luis Robert Jr. and Gavin Sheets in the stands. I suppose it'd reflect well on the White Sox if those players demonstrated such fondness for their original team years after their peak experiences on the South Side, but I'd also be wondering what they're doing there.
