White Sox Beat Guardians 4-3, Take 2-0 ALDS Lead; Judge-less Yankees Fight for Season in Tampa

CLEVELAND — The White Sox beat the Guardians 4-3 in ALDS Game 2 on Monday at Progressive Field to take a 2-0 series lead — and they did it the way they've done everything this October: with pitching that refuses to bend and one swing at exactly the right time. Braden Montgomery's go-ahead two-run double in the sixth inning and 5⅓ innings of one-run, one-hit relief from Sean Burke carried Chicago to the win. The White Sox can close out the series — and reach their first ALCS since winning the 2005 World Series — with a victory Wednesday at home at Rate Field.

THE SIXTH — This is the at-bat that will live in White Sox October lore. With two outs in the sixth and the game tied 2-2, Montgomery sliced an opposite-field double just inside the right-field foul line off reliever Erik Sabrowski, driving in Miguel Vargas and Randal Grichuk to put Chicago ahead for good, per Reuters. Hunter Gaddis entered and immediately allowed another opposite-field hit — Chase Meidroth plating Montgomery to stretch the lead to 4-2. The 23-year-old former first-round pick was just 3-for-15 to open the postseason, per NBC Sports' player-news desk. None of that matters now. His one hit was the one that mattered most. And while Cleveland was falling, the Judge-less Yankees were fighting for their season in Tampa — trailing the Rays 1-0 in the third inning of Game 2, staring at their own 2-0 hole. More on that below.

BURKE'S NIGHT — If Montgomery won the game, Sean Burke is why the White Sox were in position to win it. Manager Will Venable handed him the ball in the fourth inning, and Burke proceeded to retire 15 of the 17 batters he faced — 13 straight from the fourth into the eighth, per USA Today — allowing one run on one hit over 5⅓ innings to earn the win. His only hit allowed came with two outs in the eighth, a single to Chase DeLauter that finally prompted Venable to go to the bullpen. It was the kind of bulk-relief masterpiece that October is built on: no panic, no traffic, just out after out while the lineup waited for its moment. That moment came in the sixth.

TAYLOR'S SAVE — Grant Taylor, the hero of Saturday's Game 1 with his rare four-inning save — four innings, two hits, six strikeouts — was asked to do it again, and he delivered his second save of the series. It wasn't clean: Taylor entered with two outs in the eighth and gave up a first-pitch RBI triple to Jo Adell that made it a one-run game, per the Akron Beacon Journal. But he got two more outs to strand Adell at third, then retired the side in the ninth to wrap up the combined four-hitter. Through two games, the White Sox have thrown 18 innings and allowed three runs. Cleveland's offense has had no answers.

WILLIAMS' NIGHT — The cruelest part of October is that somebody has to lose a game like this, and Gavin Williams deserved better. The Guardians' starter struck out a career postseason-high 11 over five-plus innings, giving up two runs on four hits with three walks, per Reuters — one strikeout shy of Charles Nagy's franchise record against Baltimore in the 1996 ALDS. Through five innings, Williams was dealing. The sixth unraveled on him, and the bullpen couldn't hold the line. Cleveland scored the game's first two runs; Williams left with the lead gone and the season hanging by a thread.

THE FIRST — For one inning, it looked like Cleveland's day. The Guardians jumped ahead 2-0 in the first — the only time the White Sox have trailed in four playoff games, including the wild-card sweep at Houston, per USA Today — and they did it without much thunder at all. Opener Anthony Kay and reliever Sean Newcomb opened the game, and a throwing error by Newcomb — wide of first base on Nate Lowe's high chopper — let Steven Kwan and José Ramírez come home. It was the kind of scratchy, opportunistic baseball Cleveland has lived on all year. The problem: the White Sox answered in the fourth, when rookie slugger Munetaka Murakami — who homered in Game 1 — lined a sharp single to right that scored Kyle Teel, the first hit against Williams all afternoon. The Guardians never led again.

THE BIGGER PICTURE — Take a step back and consider what this team is doing. Two years ago, the White Sox lost a major-league-record 121 games. Last year, they lost 102. This year, they grabbed the league's final wild-card berth, swept two games at Houston, and are now 4-0 in the postseason with a chance to sweep the AL Central champions in their own building on Wednesday. Cleveland, meanwhile, has scored three runs in 18 playoff innings — the Guardians went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position in Game 2, per Baseball Musings, and José Ramírez is 0-for-6 with three strikeouts in the series. The Guardians need to win three straight to survive, starting Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET at Rate Field. The White Sox haven't been home since September 27. They're about to come home conquering heroes.

TAMPA — While Cleveland was falling, the other ALDS was just getting started. The Yankees trail the Rays 1-0 in the third inning of Game 2 at Tropicana Field, fighting to avoid their own 2-0 hole. Tampa Bay took Game 1 by a 1-0 score on Saturday — Jonathan Aranda's solo homer the only run, with Drew Rasmussen carrying a no-hitter into the eighth. Monday's pitching matchup is the best of the series so far: likely AL Cy Young winner Cam Schlittler for New York against Freddy Peralta for Tampa Bay. Schlittler went 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA and 239 strikeouts in the regular season and threw six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts against Boston in the wild-card round. Peralta went 5-2 with a 3.25 ERA after arriving at the trade deadline from the Mets.

NO JUDGE — The Yankees are doing all of this without their captain. Aaron Judge hasn't played since September 16 because of a strained right calf, and the Yankees left him off the ALDS roster entirely — the earliest he could return is the ALCS, if New York gets there. Without him, the Yankees have leaned on their homegrown kids: Ben Rice, a 12th-rounder out of Dartmouth; Spencer Jones, the 25th overall pick out of Vanderbilt; and 21-year-old shortstop George Lombard Jr. — all products of the same 2021-23 drafts as Schlittler himself. It worked in the wild-card round, when New York outscored Boston 18-2. The Rays, the AL East champions at 98-64, are a different test. First pitch was 8 p.m. ET on truTV, TBS and HBO Max. Game 3 is Wednesday in New York.

Two series, two very different Mondays. In Cleveland, the White Sox are 27 outs from the pennant round — the team that lost 121 games two years ago, one win from playing for the American League title. In Tampa, the Yankees are fighting for their season without their best player, in a building where they haven't scored in nine innings. October doesn't do boring. Follow every pitch with Previously's MLB hub.