The White Sox had a 4-3 lead and a chance to keep control of the game. Instead, the sixth inning turned into a collapse they couldn’t escape.
What looked like a workable pitching plan before first pitch unraveled fast. Hagen Smith never made it out of the first inning.
Erick Fedde was solid enough, but not dominant enough to feel like the answer. Anthony Kay got only one out.
Jordan Hicks gave up the homer that flipped the lead. Grant Taylor then looked spent.
By the time the Guardians were done in the sixth, a 4-3 White Sox edge had become a 9-4 hole.
It started with Kay, who got Anthony Kay to ground out, then hit Angel Martínez. Martínez stole second and scored on Travis Bazzana’s line drive, which deflected off the glove of a diving Braden Montgomery and tied the game at 4. That opened the door for the rest of the inning to spiral.
Taylor came in and never retired any of the six hitters he faced. Patrick Bailey poked a curveball to left for the go-ahead single, then Taylor issued back-to-back walks on nine pitches.
José Ramírez followed with an RBI infield single when his grounder slipped past the glove of a diving Chase Meidroth. After that, Chase DeLauter and Jo Adell each singled to right, and the Guardians kept stacking hits until the inning had fully broken open.
The White Sox did have chances to make it interesting late, and Stephen Vogt helped them a little by leaning on Cade Smith longer than planned. Smith handled the eighth, but after Miguel Vargas opened the ninth with a homer and Munetaka Murakami walked, Vogt went to presumptive Game 5 starter Gavin Williams to finish.
That opened the door for a possible rally. Sam Antonacci singled, but the Sox couldn’t push the tying run into scoring position.
Andrew Benintendi pinch-hit for Brenton Doyle and was overmatched again, just as he had been in Game 2. Kyle Teel worked a 3-0 count and eventually got to full, but Williams won the battle when Teel fouled off a pitch that may have looked too much like a strike before grounding into a 6-4 putout.
Braden Montgomery was the last hope, and he flied out to left to end it.
Even in defeat, the White Sox made Cleveland’s closer look vulnerable and forced Saturday’s starter to throw 18 high-stress pitches. Vogt turned what could have been a straightforward finish into a tense one.
The game had been sitting there for the White Sox early. Fedde threw the final out of the third after Chicago grabbed a 2-0 lead in the bottom of that inning and knocked Parker Messick out of the game. Fedde later celebrated by flinging the ball into the upper deck after Travis Bazzana grounded into a 3-1 putout to end the fourth.
It could also have been over after the fifth. Bailey homered to get Cleveland on the board, Steven Kwan singled to chase Fedde, and Ramírez then took Hicks deep for a two-run shot that put the Guardians ahead 3-2.
Chicago answered anyway. Tanner Bibee was run through quickly as Chase Meidroth and Miguel Vargas drew walks around a Tristan Peters strikeout.
Both runners scored. Munetaka Murakami singled off lefty Tim Herrin, Antonacci was hit by a pitch to tie it at 3, and Doyle’s sacrifice fly to center made it 4-3.
Erik Sabrowski entered and struck out Braden Montgomery, and that was about where the White Sox offense stopped.
Now they head to Cleveland after a sixth-inning meltdown that sent the series back there, still trying to become the first team in nine years to blow a 2-0 Division Series lead. The White Sox will have to wait until a 121st season to clinch at home.
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