The American League Division Series is already tilting hard in two directions.
After Game 2, the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays both own 2-0 leads, and both clubs are now one win away from ending their division series in Game 3 on Wednesday. That kind of cushion is as good as it gets in a best-of-five setup: teams that go up 2-0 have taken the series 83 times in 93 tries, and under the current 2-2-1 format, teams that win the first two division games at home have advanced 33 times in 36 chances.
Chicago had to work for it, but the White Sox kept pressing until the game broke their way. They fell behind 2-0 against Gavin Williams in the first, then kept chipping at the Guardians’ pitching staff while Anthony Kay opened and Will Venable moved quickly to the bullpen.
The relief group of Sean Newcomb, Sean Burke and Grant Taylor handled the heavy lifting, combining for 8.2 innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts. Burke, who spent most of the season in the starting rotation, logged 5.1 innings and earned the win.
The swing moment came from Braden Montgomery, the rookie prospect headlining the Garrett Crochet trade. He jumped on the first pitch he saw and sent it into the right-field corner for the biggest hit of his career, giving Chicago a 3-2 lead. Chase Meidroth then added an RBI single for an insurance run that mattered.
Venable’s aggressive bullpen use has worked out so far. The White Sox are 4-0 in the postseason, and Taylor has been a major reason why, posting 7.2 scoreless innings across three appearances and collecting a save in each one.
Now Chicago is on the doorstep of an American League Championship Series berth, with the next two games at home. Wednesday will be the first postseason game at Rate Field since October 12, 2021, when the White Sox were eliminated by the eventual AL champion Houston Astros.
Tampa Bay, meanwhile, leaned into the identity that has carried it all season: putting the ball in play and punishing mistakes. The Rays took advantage of four Yankees errors, including three in the first inning, and three unearned runs came across as a result. One of the earliest breaks came when Jazz Chisholm made an ill-advised throw on a double-play chance that had no chance to be completed, letting Yandy Díaz score from second.
The fifth inning turned into a clinic in pressure baseball. With the game tied, Jonathan Aranda’s single dropped in after Spencer Jones got a poor read off the bat, and Junior Caminero followed by ripping a 112.4 MPH line drive to the right-center gap to put two runners in scoring position with nobody out.
From there, the Rays kept the line moving. Liam Hicks and Chandler Simpson used choppers to the middle infield to push the lead to 3-1 and send American League Cy Young frontrunner Cam Schlittler out after 4.1 innings.
New York’s problems didn’t stop there. Another error kept the inning alive, Johnny DeLuca then stole second to create another scoring chance, and Richie Palacios capped the rally with a 100 MPH single that brought home both runners and made it 5-1.
Tampa Bay also made the right pitches when it needed them. Cam Booser won the night’s biggest confrontation, getting Cody Bellinger’s 102.7 MPH drive with the bases loaded to stay in the park as DeLuca chased it to the wall for the final out of the top of the fifth. That was the Yankees’ last real opening.
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