Tristan Peters turned one plate appearance into the kind of grind that can change a game - and maybe the shape of a division race.
The White Sox outfielder worked Gavin Williams for 18 pitches in Cleveland, eventually drawing a walk after a marathon battle that featured seven fastballs, six curveballs, four sweepers and one cutter, along with 12 foul balls and two called strikes. That at-bat helped push Chicago into a 7-3 win over the Guardians in the opener of the series, giving the White Sox a 1 1/2-game cushion over Cleveland in the AL Central.
Williams had been cruising through five scoreless innings, even as Chicago kept finding ways to put runners on. Andrew Benintendi started the sixth with a single, and Williams was already at 95 pitches when Peters stepped in and stretched the inning far beyond what Cleveland wanted.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Peters’ plate appearance was the third-most pitches seen in an at-bat since 2000. It is tied for the most pitches in a walk during that span. Brandon Belt went 21 pitches against the Los Angeles Angels in 2018, while Matt Wieters forced 19 pitches from Caleb Thielbar in 2020.
The sequence was a tug-of-war from the first pitch. Peters took a curveball that looked like it may have caught the bottom of the strike zone, but it was ruled a ball and Patrick Bailey did not challenge.
Williams then found the zone with two fastballs on the inside corner for strikes, only for Peters to keep spoiling pitch after pitch. He fouled off fastballs, curveballs, a sweeper and a cutter, took another curveball in the dirt, kept battling through more foul balls, then watched a sweeper miss low before finally laying off a curveball off the plate.
One more strikeout for Williams would have tied him with Jacob Misiorowski and Dylan Cease for the league lead.
Peters made himself a problem for Cleveland again a few minutes later. Colson Montgomery hit a grounder to first, but Nathaniel Lowe hit Peters in the helmet with a throw to second while trying to start a double play. The ball bounced into left field, Benintendi scored, and the inning quickly spun out of control for the Guardians.
Chase Meidroth followed with an RBI single, Kyle Teel added a two-run double and Miguel Vargas capped the burst with a two-run homer to the left-field porch.
The win also gave Chicago the season tiebreaker over Cleveland. If the teams finish with the same record, the White Sox would claim their first division title since 2021, while the Guardians would be left fighting for their playoff lives in a crowded wild-card race. Cleveland can still move a half-game ahead by winning the final two games of the series.
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