The White Sox left Detroit with more than a sweep. They left Comerica Park looking like the club that owns the AL Central.
Sunday’s 7-5 win over the Tigers finished off a three-game sweep and stretched Chicago’s division lead to 5 1/2 games. It also wiped away some of the memory of the Sox dropping three straight at the same ballpark from June 19-21. This time, there was no doubt about who controlled the weekend.
The game had the same kind of feel the White Sox have carried all season: they got punched early, kept moving, and then took over when it mattered. Detroit jumped ahead 3-0 and later 4-1, but Chicago kept answering until the Tigers were finally buried.
Munetaka Murakami delivered the biggest swing of the afternoon. His two-run homer off Tyler Holton in the seventh - his 28th of the year and second of the series - turned the game firmly in Chicago’s favor. Murakami, who tied Sammy Sosa on the franchise’s all-time home run list, also helped protect the lead defensively in the seventh, taking a hit away from Hao-Yu Lee with two outs to keep the tying run at second.
Miguel Vargas added another dagger in the ninth, launching his third homer of the series and his 28th of the season. That made it the 10th time Murakami and Vargas have homered in the same game this year, matching the White Sox franchise record for a duo set by Luis Robert Jr. and Jake Burger in 2023, Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye in 2006 and Frank Thomas and Carlos Lee in 2003.
Colson Montgomery also played a key role, finishing with two hits and delivering the game-tying single off Holton in the sixth. The win pushed Chicago to 65-58, a season-high seven games over .500.
The Sox have been better than that road record might suggest, too. Sunday’s victory improved them to 28-34 away from home.
On the mound, Sean Burke gave up four runs in 4 1/3 innings and struck out two, but the bullpen steadied things behind him. Hagen Smith earned his second win in a week, working 1 2/3 scoreless, hitless innings with one strikeout and one walk. He also made one of the game’s quieter turning points, snagging a Ben Malgeri liner off his stomach for the first out of the sixth and keeping Spencer Torkelson at second.
Now the White Sox head to Wrigley Field for three games against the Cubs, the same team they beat in a home series from May 15-17.
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Caleb Bonemer Is Giving White Sox Fans Another Reason To Believe
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For Chicago, the encouraging part is not just the production, but the way it fits the bigger picture of the organizations minor league pipeline. The recent round of affiliate action also brought a full slate of game recaps and individual stat lines from Rochester, Columbus, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Kannapolis and Hickory, offering another snapshot of how broad the rebuild effort has become, with Bonemer now standing out as one of the names worth tracking most closely. [Read more 🡒]