theathleticuk
CLEVELAND — The morning before the Chicago White Sox hosted their first home playoff game in five years, general manager Chris Getz and his wife, Nicky, took a walk through their Chicago neighborhood. They live in Cubs territory, but recently they've noticed more White Sox hats on passersby. As Getz strolled past falling leaves, pumpkins, and Halloween decorations, the scene felt almost surreal. It was October, and the White Sox were still playing.
Getz and team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf were among those who admitted they didn't foresee the White Sox reaching the postseason this quickly. Some in the front office had even teased a staff member who scheduled his wedding for Saturday—the day of Game 5 of the American League Division Series. "But I don't really blame him that much," Getz said earlier in the week, sitting on a dugout bench. "I don't think anyone had us playing right now."
Only two years ago, the White Sox lost a modern record 121 games. Now they were one win away from the ALCS. Four days later, it all unraveled. The White Sox dropped three straight to the Cleveland Guardians, who took the decisive Game 5, 2-0, on Saturday night and advanced to face the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS.
The biggest moments from Game 5 could linger all winter. There was Sean Burke, the right-hander who emerged as one of the better starters in the American League, mouthing "Oh my God" when José Ramírez scraped a pitch less than a foot off the ground and sent it over the right-field wall for a two-run homer—the only runs of the day. Burke later said that if he could have walked to the plate and placed the ball where he wanted, he wouldn't have changed the pitch's location.
There was Munetaka Murakami, the powerful Japanese slugger who landed with the White Sox after other teams doubted his ability, tipping a fastball into the catcher's mitt to strike out with the bases loaded. Murakami leaned back on one leg and grimaced in disgust. All night long, Chicago's bats met nothing but air. The White Sox, baffled by Gavin Williams and flummoxed by Cade Smith, struck out 21 times. In Game 3, they set a record for most strikeouts in a nine-inning postseason game with 19. In Game 5, they broke it.
When it was over, Miguel Vargas, the third baseman who hit .150 in 2024 but this season smacked 33 homers and was an All-Star, was among the last players to leave the dugout. He hung his glove at his side as he walked down the tunnel. Downstairs, after the 90-year-old Reinsdorf left the clubhouse wearing a gray pullover, the doors opened. Back slaps and high-fives served as the soundtrack to a strange scene. Everyone processed the loss differently, and no one was quite sure how to feel.
On one hand, there must be appreciation for how far the White Sox have come, the odds they defied simply to be here. Chicago entered this year on the heels of three straight 100-loss seasons. The White Sox lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 14-2 on Opening Day and started the season 9-15. They went on to win 84 games, earned a wild-card berth, and beat the Houston Astros in the postseason. Chicago is mostly a young team with reason to hope ahead.
"We came into the year with a 0 percent chance of making the playoffs, and we shocked the world and did everything we said we were going to do," infielder Colson Montgomery said. "Coming up short like this, it hurts. It hurts a lot. But there's a lot to be proud of."
At the same time, the White Sox saw their season end in painful fashion, unable to deliver the South Side its first series-clinching victory at home since 1906 and ultimately unable to make their first ALCS since 2005. The White Sox struck out 75 times in this ALDS, a Division Series record that topped the next-closest team—the 2017 New York Yankees—by an inglorious 11 strikeouts. Chicago had a 2-0 series lead. But on Saturday, the White Sox prepared to go home while the Guardians, the same team that chased them down to win the AL Central in September, popped champagne and partied on a beautiful Ohio night.
Chicago's players packed their gloves and gear and watched clubhouse attendants wheel their bags toward the bus. The Cleveland scoreboard displayed a message: "Moving on."
"It will take some time to sit down and look at it," outfielder Sam Antonacci said. "The goal is the World Series. If anyone says their goal is to make it to the playoffs, it's a piss-poor goal."
Antonacci said those words surrounded by a throng of cameras. The media contingent around the White Sox grew exponentially as the postseason stretched on and their underdog story garnered more and more attention. There were so many markers of success this year. Antonacci, a fifth-round pick in 2024, and Tristan Peters, a player the Rays once designated for assignment, became two of the most productive rookies in the American League. In catcher Kyle Teel, outfielder Braden Montgomery, and second baseman Chase Meidroth, the fruits of Chicago's Garrett Crochet trade now make up one-third of the team's typical starting lineup.
"The next couple days it will settle in, all the great things we accomplished," Teel said. "Right now, it's really hard on me and a lot of guys in this group, because we wanted it so bad."
The strikeouts mar this Division Series but also make sense for Chicago, a club that struck out more than all but four other teams in the regular season. Montgomery hit 31 home runs but set a major-league record with 227 strikeouts. For all his thrilling swings, Murakami struck out at a higher rate than every qualifying major-league hitter except Montgomery.
Key Analysis
More notably, the White Sox lost with a pitching staff that was held together with bubblegum at the end. Although Burke posted a 3.34 ERA this season and pitched five quality innings Saturday, the White Sox operated in the postseason without anything close to a traditional rotation. They taxed super reliever Grant Taylor and otherwise operated with little trust in their other arms. Using openers and playing the matchups, they technically threw their bullpen for 33 2/3 innings over these five games, another Division Series record. None of that was ever by design, yet it was a reality that could not be ignored, especially given the two pitchers the team acquired at the trade deadline—Huascar Brazobán and Luis Castillo—were not even on the ALDS roster. Castillo, in particular, is a problem, set to return and make $22.75 million next season.
The White Sox have their flaws. They also have promise. Their charm this season was largely a product of their fun-loving nature, the team that printed T-shirts with inside jokes, talked about the power of ice cream, and had an injured pitcher waving a wizard wand in the dugout all season long.
"I've played on a lot of teams in my life," Burke said. "This is definitely my favorite team I've ever played on."
"Easily the most special season I've ever been a part of," said Mike Vasil, the aforementioned injured pitcher. "We made a lot of people believe, and that's really the only thing that matters, is that White Sox baseball is back, and we're here to stay."
In three full seasons running the organization, Getz has done strong work both improving the roster and turning around the culture. He knows it won't be exactly the same next year. If the White Sox can add more robust pitching, they could be even better. But the chemistry they captured this year was special, and it can be hard to predict how these things will develop.
"I think we're in a really good spot right now," Getz said. "Now, we do have a young, innocent, very pure player group. Candidly, if we were to expect the same outcome the very next year with the exact same approach to things, I think it could be a bit of a trap, too, because so many things change. It's a step closer to arbitration. A step closer to free agency. It can start infiltrating the mind. That's something that you can't figure out. And something that you need to be very aware of."
Saturday night inside the visitors clubhouse at Progressive Field, Vargas was one of the last players to emerge from a back room and stand in front of the cameras. Part of him wasn't quite ready to put a silver lining on a season that fell short in such frustrating fashion. "Right now," Vargas said, "I just think about tonight, about the tough loss we got." Vargas kept talking, and eventually said, "We're going to be back together, and we're going to be better."
Before Game 5, second-year manager Will Venable talked about Chicago's efforts to change how the team is perceived. The White Sox are a laughingstock no longer. After the loss, Venable looked at his players and told them, "This was easily the most fun that I've had in all my years in Major League Baseball."
Originally reported by theathleticuk.