One game into a series that figures to be tight and tough throughout, the White Sox discovered one potential key: If their closer throws nearly as many innings as Cleveland's starter, they'll probably be in pretty good shape.
Munetaka Murakami blew up Parker Messick for a two-run shot in the fourth, and once the White Sox grunted that that lead to the sixth, Grant Taylor carried it the rest of the way. After setting a relief career high with 54 pitches his last time out, Taylor set a relief career high with four innings.
On its face, it's the kind of usage that seems borderline reckless, but watching it unfoled, it would've been questionale to turn it to anybody else. He needed just 42 pitches, throwing 34 strikes and getting whiffs more than half of Cleveland's 23 swings, including seven misses on nine attempts on touching his curveball. He threw just 10 pitches in the sixth, then another 10 in the seventh. Once he needed just 11 pitches to complete the 11th, he earned the crack at closing it out. Sean Newcomb warmed in the bullpen, but wasn't anywhere close to needed.
Taylor came away with the save, but he could've been awarded the win as the most effective reliever. He also threw four innings to Messick's 4⅓ innings, as the White Sox were able to do enough against him. Miguel Vargas and Murakami, both of whom struggled in the Wild Card Series, caused him the biggest problems.
Vargas drew a walk to extend the first inning to 23 pitches, and then he singled to left to open the fourth. That made it a two-run shot when Murakami connected on a first-pitch sinker and launched it some 440 feet to right field for his first postseason homer and a 2-0 White Sox lead. Messick was able to get through that inning, but when Colson Montgomery foiled another lefty-lefty matchup with a one-out single in the fifth, Stephen Vogt went to the bullpen.
As it turned out, the Guardians ended up using more pitchers (six) than the White Sox (five), flipping another series talking point on its head.
Hagen Smith matched Messick pitch for pitch, at least for 2⅔ innings. Then he walked Brayan Rocchio to turn over the lineup, as well as the next two hitters to load the bases. Jordan Hicks looked ready to take over in the fourth, but instead Will Venable had to call for Bryan Hudson to face Chase DeLauter. Hudson elevated the drama by falling into a full count and piping one to DeLauter instead of walking in a run, but DeLauter could only muster a routine flyout to left.
The same theme played out for both teams in the fourth -- the White Sox being unable to close out innings, but the Guardians coming up one plate appearance short. Hicks entered and struck out the first two hitters he faced, but walked Nathaniel Lowe. With lefty Travis Bazzana coming to the plate, Venable called for Anthony Kay, and that almost backfired. Bazzana lined a double to right that put runners on second and third, and then Kay walked Austin Hedges to load the bases for Rocchio. Though Rocchio has dealt two gut punches to the White Sox this season, Rocchio could only line out to Braden Montgomery to once again strand three.
Kay steadied the effort with a 1-2-3 fifth, which opened with him denying Steven Kwan an infield single by gloving a chopper and making a back-footed throw to first, which Murakami scooped. That's when Venable went to Taylor, who handled the rest.
The White Sox were able to add a bit of insurance, but not with the swing they expected it from.
In the sixth, Tristan Peters led off with an infield single, followed by Vargas' second walk of the afternoon. Vogt called for lefty Erik Sabrowski, who dispatched Murakami, but when Tommy Pham opened up on his first-pitch fastball, Sabrowski thought the Sox had turned the tables.
The ball left Pham's bat at 106.1 mph with a launch angle of 31 degrees. Pham thought it was gone, as did Sabrowski. Vargas thought it was at least off the wall, as he'd advanced all the way to second. They all had good reason for their beliefs, as Sam Miller pointed out:
the launch/exit velo Pham just put on the ball produced homers 23/26 times in the past five years. The three outs were all to dead center.
— Sam Miller (@sammillerbb.bsky.social) 2026-10-03T19:05:35.746Z
But the wind knocked down the fly into Angel Martinez's glove against the wall. After foiling the extra-base hit, he returned the ball to the infield in time to double off Vargas at first for the most unlikely double play.
Any momentum from that play didn't survive a full inning. Teel drew a one-out walk from Sabrowski in the seventh, and after Braden Montgomery struck out, Colson Montgomery offered at Sabrowski's first-pitch fastball low and away and slapped it past a vacant third base and down the left field line.
As Teel approached third, he picked up Justin Jirschele's windmill. Whether it was catcher speed or expecting to get a stop sign Teel needed like 15 steps to round the bag. Those extra steps could have cost him, but while the throw beat him home, Hedges couldn't secure the ball before trying to apply the tag, and Teel slid in safely as the ball bounded away. That made it a 3-0 game, and once Taylor erased a leadoff single with a double play in the bottom of the seventh, the tyin run never even made it to the on-deck circle.
