White Sox rally against Guardians to take commanding 2-0 lead in ALDS

Teams that have a 2-0 series lead in the Division Series move on to the Championship Series almost 89% of the time, totaling an 80-10 record. 

Chicago are now one win away from sweeping a Division Series matchup for the first time since 2005 (Boston Red Sox), the same year they went on to win the World Series. As for Cleveland, they look to avoid their first Postseason sweep since the 2022 ALDS (New York Yankees). 

Should they rally back the next three games, the Guardians will become just the ninth team ever to complete a three-game comeback to win their respective Division Series. The last time it was done? In 2017, ironically, when the Yankees defeated the Guardians in five games after being down 0-2. 

The White Sox now improve to 4-0 this Postseason. 

Recap

The first inning was about as bad as possible for the White Sox. Anthony Kay was taken out after 17 pitches following two walks and a groundout. Sean Newcomb came in and tossed something so ugly to first it made me embarrassed for Munetaka Murakami having to chase after it.

Guardians went up 2-0 thanks to the error from Newcomb before he finally got out of the inning. 

The two pitchers combined for 31 pitches in the first inning. For perspective, Guardians starter Gavin Williams had 31 through the first two innings himself with five strikeouts. 

Things were steady for both teams up until the fourth. After the White Sox got runners on first and second with no outs, Murakami proved clutch yet again with an RBI single between first and second to bring home Kyle Teel to make it a 2-1 game.

Williams minimized the damage immediately after by striking out Andrew Benintendi, forcing Tristan Peters to pop out, then Braden Montgomery for his eighth strikeout of the game.

The Guardians' bats went cold after another nothingburger of a fifth inning. Chase DeLauter had the team's only hit between the second and fifth innings, but Williams made sure to keep the White Sox at bay. 

The starter entered the sixth with 11 strikeouts, which is now tied for second-most by a Guardians pitcher in Postseason history. It was also a career Postseason high for Williams, who had previously thrown 12 strikeouts combined in his other two Postseason starts. 

His night ended after starting the sixth inning with a walk to Miguel Vargas.

That's when hell broke loose for the Guardians. Erik Sabrowski came on in relief for Williams and almost immediately gave up a go-ahead RBI double to Braden Montgomery as the White Sox took a 3-2 lead. 

It marked Montgomery's first career Postseason RBI.

Cleveland took out Sabrowski for Cade Haddis, but the White Sox continued to pile on. Chase Meidroth brought in Montgomery from second with an RBI single to bring his Postseason total to a team-leading five RBI. 

After being brought in for the fourth inning, Chicago's Sean Burke put on a clinic by retiring 14 straight batters. Cleveland's DeLauter broke the streak in the bottom of the eighth inning, ending Burke's night. 

He finished with 5.1 shutout innings with just one hit, one walk, and six strikeouts. 

Burke's previous outing was against the Houston Astros in Game 2 of the Wild Card, in which he gave up all three runs on three solo home runs.

And, like clockwork, Jo Adell comes within feet of a two-run home run, bringing DeLauter home with a triple for his first career Postseason hit to cut the deficit to 4-3. 

Adell, who was acquired by the Guardians at this year's trade deadline, previously went 0-for-4 in Game 1 of this series.

Cleveland had one last shot in the bottom of the ninth to complete the rally, but couldn't get it done. 

Meidroth was the only one in Chicago's lineup to finish with multiple hits (2-for-4), while DeLauter had two of Cleveland's four total hits, the other two coming from Adell and Steven Kwan. 

Game 3 of the ALDS between the White Sox and Guardians will take place on Wednesday, October 7th in Chicago.