The White Sox came back to Rate Field on Thursday with the series still in hand, even after Wednesday night’s 9-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians knocked the shine off an otherwise perfect postseason run.
Chicago still leads the American League Division Series two games to one, and Game 4 was set for 7 p.m. at home, giving the Sox another crack at finishing the job in front of their own crowd. That part of the story carries some real weight. The White Sox have won the World Series twice, in 1917 and 2005, but the last time they clinched a playoff series at home was 120 years ago.
That drought stretches all the way back to 1906, when the Sox beat the Cubs in the World Series. Old Comiskey Park, the long-ago demolished stadium that still lives in Chicago baseball memory, wouldn’t open for another four years. Back then, the White Sox were playing at the last of three stadiums called South Side Park, about half a mile away.
Even with Wednesday’s loss, the mood around the ballpark remained guarded but upbeat.
“Anxious. Anxious, but hopeful,” said a White Sox fan named Ernie. “I was in these same seats in '05, so I'm hoping for a repeat, but this time, they'll clinch at home.”
The city’s first-ever White Sox fan pope is part of the conversation too, and fans haven’t missed the symbolism.
“It’s surreal - a pope from Chicago. You'd never forget it,” said Anthony Skokal. “It's brought the city together in many ways, and hopefully, it'll continue to be that way.”
More than 40,000 fans were at Rate Field on Wednesday night, and tens of thousands were expected back on Thursday to see whether the Sox could finally end a postseason series at home.
In Other News...
White Sox Enter Crucial Game 4 With One Big Decision Looming
The White Sox are back home for Game 4 of the American League Division Series, with Cleveland still looking for its first homer of the series and Jos Ramrez looming as the most obvious threat to change that. Chicagos pitching plan has not been announced, which makes this feel like one of those October games where the manager is forced to keep a few options open and read the matchup pitch by pitch.
Munetaka Murakami enters the night as the favorite to leave the yard, helped by the kind of postseason power that can tilt a game in a hurry. For the White Sox, the bigger question may be less about who starts and more about how quickly they can match Clevelands urgency if the Guardians finally start driving the ball with authority. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Suddenly Have A Big-Inning Problem At The Worst Time
The White Sox had the kind of night that can flip a Division Series in an instant, building leads of 2-0 and 4-3 before watching the game slip away against the Guardians. Early pitching trouble from Hagen Smith and Jordan Hicks put pressure on Chicago right away, and even after the offense did enough to keep the game close, the pitching staff could not hold the line long enough to protect the advantage.
The pivotal stretch came in the sixth, when Cleveland pushed across multiple runs against Anthony Kay and Grant Taylor and turned a one-run game into a much steeper climb for Chicago. A late White Sox push kept things from getting completely out of hand, but the comeback effort never quite got there, leaving the club to regroup as the series shifts to Cleveland. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Let A Closeout Game Turn Into A Brutal Reset
A chance to take a commanding step in the American League Division Series slipped away as the White Sox were beaten 9-3 by the Guardians in Game 3, trimming Chicagos series lead to 2-1. What had looked like a closeout opportunity instead turned into a night in which Clevelands pitching dictated the pace, piling up 19 strikeouts in nine innings and setting a major league postseason record in the process.
Chicago also had to watch Clevelands lineup come alive at key moments, with Jos Ramrez collecting two hits that included a two-run triple. Jo Adell added to the damage with a bases-clearing triple, turning what had been a tight postseason game into a stern reset for a White Sox club that now has a shorter runway than it did before first pitch. [Read more 🡒]