Cleveland Guardians 0 - 3 Chicago White Sox: how it happened
Munetaka Murakami's thunderclap and a four-man bullpen relay gave the rebuilt White Sox a shutout of the AL Central champions in ALDS Game 1.
Two years ago the Chicago White Sox lost 121 games, the most in modern major league history. On Saturday at Progressive Field, they walked into the home of the AL Central champions — winners of three straight division titles — and took Game 1 of the Division Series, 3-0 — and they did it with a bullpen game, a two-run homer from their marquee import, and a champion's poise they have had no business acquiring this fast.
The swing that decided it
The game's only conventional damage came in the fourth inning, when Munetaka Murakami turned on a pitch from Cleveland starter Parker Messick and hit a two-run homer that Yahoo Sports described as the hardest-hit ball of this entire postseason so far. The Japanese slugger, signed last winter on a two-year, $34 million deal after his posting from NPB, hit 35 home runs with an .826 OPS in his first MLB season. This one was worth more than any of them.
Chicago added an unearned insurance run in the seventh that was pure October chaos: Kyle Teel walked, Colson Montgomery squibbed a cue-shot double down the third-base line, and Teel scored when Angel Martínez's throw home skipped past catcher Austin Hedges, per MLB.com's recap. Statcast put Montgomery's contact at a 5% hit probability, per Yahoo. Sometimes the ball finds the team playing with house money.
A bullpen game that worked exactly as drawn
The White Sox never handed the game to a traditional starter. Opener Hagen Smith retired eight batters before walking three straight in the third, finishing with a line of 2⅔ hitless innings; Bryan Hudson escaped one bases-loaded jam by getting Chase DeLauter to line out and was eventually credited with the win, and Anthony Kay stranded another by retiring Brayan Rocchio with the bases full. Then Grant Taylor — a 2023 second-round pick with a 2.25 ERA this season — simply ended the evening: four scoreless innings, two hits, six strikeouts, and a save that Yahoo Sports noted was the first four-inning save since 2017.
Cleveland's line tells the story of a maddening night: three hits, five walks, seven runners left on base, 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, and the bases loaded in both the third and fourth innings without a run to show for it. Jo Adell went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. "We're a better team than that," Hedges said afterward. "But anytime we give up three runs, we usually expect to win."
Two roads to the same October
What makes this series compelling is that these teams spent September separated by a couple of games in the same division race. Cleveland clinched its third straight AL Central at 85-76, winning nine of its last ten to hold off — of all teams — the White Sox, then took the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. Chicago settled for a wild card, beat Houston in the Wild Card Series, and arrived in Cleveland having not trailed at any point in 27 postseason innings, per Yahoo.
The larger arc belongs to the visitors. Per MLB.com, these White Sox are the first team ever to reach the playoffs immediately after three consecutive 100-loss seasons. Only four hitters remain from the 2024 disaster. The Garrett Crochet trade with Boston brought back Teel and Braden Montgomery; the draft produced ace Sean Burke (3.34 ERA, 172⅓ innings) and Taylor; Miguel Vargas, acquired in a three-team deal, hit 33 homers. Murakami was the finishing touch, not the foundation. Cleveland, for its part, won its division with a bottom-third offense that only came alive after early August, per MLB.com — a profile that makes a 3-0 shutout loss feel uncomfortably on-brand.
What to watch next
History says Game 1 of a best-of-five matters enormously — MLB.com notes teams that take the opener advance 73% of the time. Game 2 comes Monday at 5 p.m. ET, and the pitching matchup inverts the script: Cleveland hands the ball to Gavin Williams in a must-win at home, while Chicago turns to Burke, its actual ace, with a chance to put the division champions on the brink. For the Guardians, the fix is simple to name and hard to do: cash the traffic. They put eight men on against a parade of relievers and scored none of them. Do that again Monday, and a team that lost 121 games in 2024 will be one win from the ALCS.