MLB
120 Years and Counting: Sox Blow Two Chances at Home, Now It's Win or Go Home in Cleveland
Let me tell you what hurts. Not the losing. We've done losing. We did 60-102 last year and 324 losses over three years, we know what losing tastes like. What hurts is having it right there, twice, in your own building, with 40,000 people in black screaming their heads off, and watching it slip away both times.
The White Sox have not clinched a postseason series at home since 1906. Nineteen oh six. The Hitless Wonders beat the Cubs in Game 6 of the World Series at South Side Park, and no Chicago White Sox team has ended a series in front of its own fans since. The Cubs broke their version of this in 2015. We've been waiting 120 years.
Wednesday was chance number one. The Sox came home up 2-0 with the blackout crowd rocking, and the Guardians dropped a 9-3 hammer on them. Fine. Shake it off. One more chance Thursday.
Thursday was worse, because for a minute it felt like it was happening. Kyle Teel doubles home the first run. Then in the sixth, the Sox take a 4-3 lead and Rate Field is shaking. I'm not exaggerating, that place was shaking. And then the top of the sixth happened. José Ramírez, who has been a problem all series, hits a go-ahead two-run shot. Then the Guardians hang a six-spot in the inning and it's 9-4 and the air just goes out of the building. Final: 9-5. Miguel Vargas homers in the ninth to make it interesting, two more guys get on, and then it's over.
So now the drought lives on, and the season comes down to one game in somebody else's park. Game 5, Saturday night, 8 p.m. ET, Progressive Field in Cleveland, on TBS. Winner gets the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS starting Monday, and the Rays just swept the Yankees like it was nothing, so that's a whole other problem.
Here's what I'll say though. Nobody, and I mean nobody, had this team here. This was supposed to be another rebuilding year after losing 324 games in three seasons. Instead they won the division, took the first two games of this series on the road, and brought playoff baseball back to the South Side for the first time since 2021. The blackout looked incredible on TV. The kids fought.
Since MLB went to the best-of-five in 1995, only seven teams have come back from 2-0. The Guardians are trying to be the eighth. The Sox are trying to make sure 120 years doesn't become 121.
One game. Saturday night. Win and everything that happened this week gets forgotten. That's baseball, and that's why we watch.
What it means
A White Sox win Saturday sends them to the ALCS for the first time since 2005, against a 100-win Rays team. A loss ends the most surprising season on the South Side in a generation and keeps the home-clinch drought alive at 120 years and counting. Gavin Williams is expected to start for Cleveland, though the Guardians had to use him in relief to close out Game 4.
Key Facts
- Game 5: Saturday, Oct 10, 8 p.m. ET at Progressive Field, Cleveland. TV: TBS/truTV.
- Series: Tied 2-2. Sox won Games 1 (3-0) and 2 (4-3) in Cleveland; Guardians won Games 3 (9-3) and 4 (9-5) in Chicago.
- The drought: White Sox last clinched a postseason series at home in Game 6 of the 1906 World Series vs the Cubs.
- What's next: Winner faces the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS starting Monday, Oct 12.
- History: Only seven teams have rallied from 2-0 down in a best-of-five since 1995.
VIA AP, USA Today, Akron Beacon Journal. Game 5 info via TBS. 1906 World Series history via Baseball Reference.