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The White Sox and Rays are one win from the ALCS. Chicago and Tampa Bay each took a 2-0 lead in the division series Monday, and both can clinch on Wednesday.
The White Sox are 4-0 this postseason, and one more win would send them to the ALCS for the first time since their 2005 championship season.
The Rays took a 2-0 lead against a Yankees team that beat itself. New York committed five errors, three of them in the first inning. The Yankees, who scored 18 runs in a Wild Card sweep of the Red Sox, have scored just two in two games against the Rays, both on solo homers by Ben Rice.
Here is what stood out from Day 3 of the MLB Division Series:
Biggest Moment
Montgomery, Meidroth Spark White Sox’ Rally
The White Sox trailed for the first time all postseason, and rookie Braden Montgomery and second baseman Chase Meidroth flipped the game in one inning.
Chicago had led for 24 of its first 27 postseason innings before Cleveland scored twice in the first off Anthony Kay and Sean Newcomb. But Guardians starter Gavin Williams, who struck out 11 over five-plus innings, couldn’t hold the lead in the sixth.
Miguel Vargas led off with a single, Munetaka Murakami moved him up with a grounder, and pinch hitter Randal Grichuk walked. A wild pitch moved both runners up a base, and Cleveland reliever Erik Sabrowski was one out from escaping before Montgomery hit an opposite-field double to give the Sox a 3-2 lead. Meidroth followed with an RBI single off Hunter Gaddis, and the White Sox held on for a 4-3 win.
Chicago is now 4-0 this postseason and has a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five ALDS. A win in Game 3 on Wednesday, or in Game 4 on Thursday, would send the White Sox to the ALCS for the first time since their 2005 championship run.
Best Hitter
Junior Caminero made the Yankees pay for how they handled him in Game 1.
The Rays third baseman, who hit 42 homers this season and is likely to finish near the top of the AL MVP voting, was pitched around in the series opener. On Monday, he hit a double into the gap off Cam Schlittler in the fifth inning, after Jonathan Aranda’s leadoff single, and then scored the third run of the game on a misplayed ball by Yankees shortstop George Lombard Jr.
Caminero also grounded to short in the first inning, a play that produced the game’s first run when Jazz Chisholm Jr. committed an error trying to turn two.
The Yankees have scored just two runs in two games, and they committed five errors in Game 2 to prevent them from tying the series heading back to the Bronx.
Best Pitcher
Freddy Peralta was exactly what the Rays hoped for when they acquired him from the Mets at the trade deadline.
In his first start with Tampa Bay since the regular season, he retired the first nine Yankees he faced, and he left with a 1-1 tie after 4⅔ innings. He allowed three hits, a walk and a run, a solo homer by Ben Rice, and struck out three.
(Photo by Carlee Calfee/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
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Peralta has a 0.79 ERA since Aug. 26, the lowest in baseball over that stretch, a turnaround for a pitcher who struggled with the Mets earlier in the year. The Rays’ bullpen did the rest, giving up just one more run on Rice’s second homer of the night, as Bryan Baker closed it out in the ninth.
What’s Next
The division series continues with the NLDS Game 3s on Tuesday and the ALDS Game 3s on Wednesday. Here’s how it will play out:
- Tuesday, Oct. 6: Dodgers at Braves (Game 3), 6 p.m. ET on FOX. The series is tied 1-1.
- Tuesday, Oct. 6: Brewers at Padres (Game 3), 9:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The Brewers lead the series 2-0.
- Wednesday, Oct. 7: Guardians at White Sox (Game 3), 4 p.m. ET. The White Sox lead the series 2-0.
- Wednesday, Oct. 7: Rays at Yankees (Game 3), 8 p.m. ET. The Rays lead the series 2-0.
