Lopsided loss to Yankees slows down White Sox good vibes

By any objective measure, the White Sox just completed their most impressive homestand of the season -- and maybe their most impressive homestand in several years.

They won both games of a rain-shortened series against the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves, and they took two out of three from the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

That's a 4-1 record against perhaps the two best teams in baseball. The Sox are 20-4 in their last 24 home games. They've beaten good teams, bad teams and mediocre teams during that stretch. The vibes are good at Rate Field.

Too bad the good vibes aren't traveling with the Sox, who had a rough start to a six-game road trip Tuesday night. The New York Yankees, who have the best record in the American League, stomped the Sox, 12-2 in the Bronx.

The Sox are 24-12 at home, which pencils out to an outstanding .667 winning percentage. But after this latest loss, they are 14-21 on the road -- a .400 winning percentage. Not great. 

What's the difference? Run prevention.

At home, the Sox have a team ERA of 3.41. On the road, they entered Tuesday's play with a 5.30 ERA. After this debacle with the Yankees, that figure is up to 5.49, if my math is correct.

The defense isn't helping. Tuesday's third inning was a case in point. The game was tied at 1 through two innings, and there were no signs that the Sox were in any sort of trouble. But it spiraled very quickly after back-to-back misplays.

It all started when New York catcher J.C. Escarra beat a shifted defense with a check-swing roller into left field. Escarra stretched the single into a double, but he should have been out at second base. Sox left fielder Sam Antonacci got the ball to second base in time, but Chase Meidroth missed the tag.

Anthony Volpe followed with what looked like a routine grounder to Meidroth, but for some reason, Sox first baseman Jacob Gonzalez forgot to the cover the bag. It was ruled an "infield single."

There should have been two outs and nobody on. Instead, the Yankees had runners on first and third with nobody out. By the time that inning was over, Sox pitcher Davis Martin (9-3) had thrown 40 pitches, and the Yankees led 5-1.

New York tacked on six more runs in the fourth inning against a tiring and flustered Martin and reliever Chris Murphy, and the rout was on.

By no means is Martin without blame in this situation. He had given up three home runs in 13 starts and 78.1 innings prior to Tuesday's game. In this start, he gave up three homers in 3.1 innings. His ERA swelled from 2.41 to 3.31. It was brutal, and a poor outing on the big stage in the Bronx (perhaps wrongfully) weakens his case to make the All-Star team.

But it all started with bad defense. On the road, against good offenses, in tough environments, you can't afford to give an opponent five outs in an inning. The Sox have done that a fair amount away from home this season, and it's contributing to the bad road record.

That said, the Sox are 38-33, and they remain percentage points ahead of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central race. They are weathering this difficult stretch of schedule against elite teams nicely. You just hope to see a crisper performance Wednesday night. 

Braden Montgomery provides White Sox with latest signature moment

I wrote on May 5 that it might be good for the White Sox if outfield prospect Braden Montgomery made it to Chicago quickly.

Montgomery did just that, making his major league debut Tuesday night against the Atlanta Braves at Rate Field.

The early returns have been excellent. Montgomery is 4 for 9 with two doubles, a home run, two runs scored and three RBIs in his first two games -- both Sox wins over the best-in-baseball Braves (45-23).

Montgomery was the reason the Sox won Tuesday night. With two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning and the Sox trailing 5-4, he rescued the team with a two-run, walkoff homer against Atlanta closer Raisel Iglesias. The Sox prevailed, 6-5.

It's worth noting that even after that homer, Iglesias has a 1.21 ERA. He hadn't allowed a home run all season until Montgomery took him deep, and that one swing doubled his runs allowed in 2026 from two to four.

So, yes, Montgomery got it done against a quality relief pitcher.

What would he do for an encore? Well, he went 2-for-4 with doubles from both sides of the plate in a 2-1 win over the Braves on Wednesday. His first double, against future Hall of Famer Chris Sale, started a two-run rally in the fourth inning that provided the Sox all the runs they would need.

Davis Martin tossed six shutout innings to improve his record to 9-2. 

The Sox have now won 18 for their last 21 games at Rate Field to improve their season home record to 22-11. The road record still kinda stinks at 14-20, but overall the Sox are 36-31.

After Thursday night's rainout, they maintain a half-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central Division. This marks the first time the Sox have been in first place since the end of the 2021 season.

Also, the Sox have been providing the home fans with some signature moments in extra innings recently.

Three times within the past month, they've trailed by a run in the bottom of the 10th inning and ended up winning because somebody hit a two-run homer: Edgar Quero on May 17 against the Chicago Cubs, Miguel Vargas on May 29 against the Detroit Tigers, and now Montgomery on June 9 against the Braves.

I'm not sure the past three years combined produced three endings like those. 

Munetaka Murakami named AL Rookie of the Month for May

White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami has been named the American League Rookie of the Month for May.

Murakami batted .244/.382/.556 with eight home runs and 18 RBIs for the month, during which the Sox went 18-10. 

The last Sox rookie to win the award was Yermin Mercedes, of all people, in April 2021.

The only downside to this is Murakami ended the month by suffering a Grade 2 hamstring on May 30, which will keep him out four to six weeks.

So far, Murakami has missed five games, and the Sox have gone 3-2. But the road is about to get much harder: Chicago's next 12 games are against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Atlanta Braves, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees.

The Dodgers, Braves and Yankees are probably the three best teams in baseball. All four of those clubs have aspirations of a deep postseason run.

This will be a big test for the Sox to see if they can hold their ground in the AL standings.

White Sox 8, Twins 0

Erick Fedde (1-5) tossed five shutout innings to pick up his first win of the season as the Sox salvaged the finale of a three-game set at Minnesota on Wednesday afternoon. 

Sam Antonacci went 4 for 4 and reached base in all six of his plate appearances. He had two doubles, two singles, a walk, an HBP, two runs scored and an RBI.

Andrew Benintendi went 2 for 3 with three walks and his sixth home run of the season. Jacob Gonzalez went 2 for 4, including a two-run single that highlighted a four-run top of the first inning that gave the Sox all the runs they would need.

The Sox are 33-29. They remain in second place in the AL Central, 2.5 games behind the Cleveland Guardians. They also occupy the second of three wild card spots in the AL. 

David Sandlin's second start goes poorly vs. Twins

David Sandlin's first major league start against the Minnesota Twins couldn't have gone better last week. What would he do for an encore Monday night? 

Well, I'm sorry to report Sandlin's second outing was pretty much a disaster. Five days after limiting the Twins to only one hit over six innings, this time the White Sox rookie right-hander got hit around for eight earned runs in four-plus innings.

The Sox saw their five-game winning streak come to an end with a 9-6 loss at Target Field. 

What was different for Sandlin (1-1) this time? Walks and a lot of traffic on the bases. In his previous outing, he retired the final 18 batters he faced and never threw a single pitch out of the stretch. He walked nobody. On Monday, Sandlin walked four and surrendered eight hits. He was on his heels in almost every inning he pitched.

Despite the high score, believe it or not, this was a 1-1 game into the bottom of the fourth. That's when Minnesota's No. 9 batter, Tristan Gray, took Sandlin deep for a two-out grand slam that made the score 5-1.

That could have been a fatal blow to the Sox, but they answered quickly with three runs in the fifth. Miguel Vargas hit a two-run homer, and Andrew Benintendi followed with a solo homer to make it 5-4.

Suddenly, Sandlin had a new lease on life. Alas, he loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fifth on a single and two walks. That would be the end of his night, and Tyler Davis allowed all three of his inherited runners to score -- plus one more run -- and the Twins were in full control of the game at 9-4 headed to the sixth inning.

The score stayed that way until the ninth inning, when Vargas delivered his second two-run homer of the night to make it 9-6. However, the Sox could get no closer.

Vargas is up to 15 homers, tied with Colson Montgomery for second on the team, but poor pitching doomed the Sox on this night.

The Sox are 32-28. They fall 1.5 games back of the idle Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central. 

Munetaka Murakami injured, but White Sox sweep Tigers

White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami will miss four to six weeks with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, which he suffered Friday night in a game against the Detroit Tigers at Rate Field.

It's not great news, especially knowing June features perhaps the toughest stretch of schedule the Sox will face all season long -- including games against the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians.

However, the Sox survived Murakami's absence just fine over the weekend, sweeping the series from the last-place Tigers. Here's a look back at the weekend that was:

Friday, May 29

White Sox 4, Tigers 3, 10 innings.  Miguel Vargas got a high changeup from Detroit reliever Drew Anderson and cranked a two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to turn a 3-2 Tigers lead into a 4-3 Sox victory.

The Sox trailed 2-1 from the third inning until the bottom of the ninth, when they scratched across the tying run against Detroit reliever Kyle Finnegan. Back-to-back singles by Andrew Benintendi and Tristan Peters placed runners at first and third with one out.

Rikuu Nishida's safety squeeze bunt was fielded by Finnegan, and while he looked at Benintendi, he didn't force the Sox baserunner to go back to third. As soon as Finnegan threw to first to retire Nishida, Benintendi broke for the plate, and he slid safely ahead of a throw from Detroit first baseman Spencer Torkelson to tie the game.

The Tigers took a 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th, with a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly, but Anderson failed to make the lead stick. Detroit went 6-22 in the month of May. That team is finding new ways to lose. 

Saturday, May 30

White Sox 7, Tigers 1. There wasn't as much drama in this game, as the Sox scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning and led from start to finish.

Sox starter Anthony Kay (5-1) made the lead stick through the first half of the game by pitching five innings of one-run ball. The South Siders blew the game wide open late, with two runs in the seventh inning and three more in the eighth.

Edgar Quero, Colson Montgomery and Benintendi all homered in the late innings to help put the game away. Quero went 2 for 3 with a sacrifice fly, and he's pulled his batting average up to .196 after an absolutely terrible start to the season.

The Sox got four innings of scoreless work from their bullpen. Grant Taylor entered with two men on and no outs in the top of the sixth. He stranded both runners, and then struck out the side in the seventh. Seranthony Dominguez tossed a scoreless eighth. Trevor Richards mopped up in the ninth.

Sunday, May 31

White Sox 2, Tigers 1. Detroit starter Keider Montero cruised through the first six innings, needing only 65 pitches as he held the Sox scoreless on two hits. But then the Tigers took him out of the game and put in ... Anderson.

Thank you very much.

The Sox handed Anderson his second loss of the series by collecting four straight hits in the bottom of the seventh. Montgomery hit his 15th homer of the season to tie the game at 1. Chase Meidroth, Jacob Gonzalez and Peters followed with three straight singles, the last of which scored Meidroth and put the Sox ahead to stay at 2-1.

Bryan Hudson covered four outs, and then Tyler Davis retired two batters in the top of the ninth to earn his first save as a member of the Sox. 

The Sox are 21-10 in their last 31 games and 32-27 for the season. The Guardians lost two of three to the Boston Red Sox over the weekend, which moves the Sox within one game of Cleveland in the AL Central.

Next up, three games in Minneapolis against the Minnesota Twins. 

White Sox win 3 of 4 in series with Twins

The White Sox came tantalizingly close to sweeping their four-game series with the Minnesota Twins this week at Rate Field.

Better execution in the bottom of the 10th inning Tuesday night would have gotten the ghost runner home. Alas, it was not to be, and the Sox dropped that one.

However, I don't think we're in any position to complain about taking three of four from the Twins, and the Sox accomplished exactly that with a 6-2 win on Thursday afternoon.

Davis Martin (8-1) continued his mastery with six innings of one-run ball. He allowed only two hits, while striking out five and walking two.

Sox hitters tagged Minnesota starter Simeon Woods Richardson (0-7) for five earned runs over 2.2 innings. A four-run third inning proved decisive, highlighted by a two-out, three-run double by Randal Grichuk.

Some other notes after Thursday's victory:

• The Sox are now 10-1 in the 11 games Martin has started. His season ERA is 2.00. Nine of his 11 starts are quality starts, and he's given either no runs or just one run in eight of his starts.
• Grichuk has appeared in 18 games since signing with the Sox on May 4. He's batting .333 with four homers and 13 RBIs. He's slugging .694 with a 1.063 OPS in 38 plate appearances.
• The Sox have won nine of their past 10 games against the Twins, dating back to last season. They have outscored Minnesota 75-32 over that same span. Not bad considering the Sox went 1-12 against the Twins as recently as 2024. 

The Sox are 29-27, three games back of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central. They host the Detroit Tigers for a three-game series over the weekend. We'll talk about that series here on Monday. 

White Sox pitcher David Sandlin dominates Twins in MLB debut

David Sandlin's first major league start probably couldn't have started much worse. The second pitch of his career got knocked out the park by Minnesota's Byron Buxton.

After that? Sandlin probably couldn't have done much better. He was outstanding, retiring the next 18 batters he faced to earn his first career victory as the White Sox throttled the Twins, 15-2, on Wednesday at Rate Field.

Yesterday, I said Sandlin would probably go five innings or 75 pitches, whichever came first. Ha! Shows what I know.

The 25-year-old right-hander needed only 61 pitches to get through six innings. He struck out four, walked nobody and threw 41 of those 61 pitches for strikes. He got seven swing-and-misses, and his fastball topped out at 99 mph. When Sandlin walked off the mound after the top of the sixth, he left with a comfortable 9-1 lead.

There are few Sox debuts this successful. Even a cynical fan like me thought this performance was awesome.

The Sox offense had a great game, too, as they pummeled Minnesota pitching for 15 runs on 18 hits. They had two five-run innings, one in the fifth and one in the seventh.

The seventh inning featured back-to-back home runs by Chase Meidroth and Munetaka Murakami. For Meidroth, it was his fifth homer of the season and first career grand slam. For Murakami, the solo shot was his 20th homer of the season. That leads the American League, and it's the most home runs by a rookie before June in MLB history.

Murakami has homered in all three games of this Minnesota series. On Wednesday, he was 2 for 4 with three runs scored. There's really no question that his addition has completely changed the complexion of the Sox lineup.

Sam Antonacci went 3 for 4 with two runs scored and three RBIs, including a two-run single in the second inning that erased the early 1-0 Minnesota lead and put the Sox ahead to stay. Randal Grichuk was 3 for 5 with two RBIs.

Meidroth, Colson Montgomery and Tristan Peters also had two-hit games for the Sox, who improve to 28-27, maintain second place and stay 3.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.

Game 4 of this series is Thursday afternoon, with the Sox hoping for a series win, and the Twins looking to salvage a split.