White Sox rally in the sixth to take 2-0 series lead against Cleveland
CLEVELAND — Braden Montgomery was ready for “something to attack.”
The Chicago White Sox right fielder batted with runners on second and third and two outs in the sixth inning and the team down by one run in Game 2 of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians.
“I wasn’t playing the guessing game,” Montgomery said. “Just ready for (reliever Erik Sabrowski’s) hardest stuff and ready for something over the plate.
“They were attacking me all night early on, and so got to be ready.”
Montgomery came through with a two-run opposite-field double to right field, giving the Sox the lead. He then scored on a single by Chase Meidroth and the Sox held on for a 4-3 victory on Monday in front of a sellout crowd of 32,050 at Progressive Field.
Sean Burke pitched 5 1/3 spectacular innings in a bulk role while Grant Taylor recorded the final four outs as the Sox took a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Game 3 is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday at Rate Field.
The Sox had to rally from a 2-0 hole.
“There’s no stopping, there’s just this mentality that we’re going to play all nine innings, all 27 outs, whatever happens, happens, there’s no letdown or discouragement from our group,” manager Will Venable said of the comeback.
“They just continued to battle and battle.”
The Guardians jumped ahead when Nathaniel Lowe hit a high bouncer with the bases loaded and one out.
Reliever Sean Newcomb had no chance of getting Steven Kwan at the plate when he fielded the ball behind the mound. But the Sox didn’t get any outs on the play when Newcomb’s throw sailed well out of the reach of first baseman Munetaka Murakami. José Ramírez scored when the throw got away, making it 2-0. It marked the first time the Sox trailed this postseason.
The Sox got something going offensively in the fourth inning. Kyle Teel singled, the first hit for the team against Guardians starter Gavin Williams. Miguel Vargas walked, bringing up Murakami with two on and no outs.
Murakami fell behind 0-2, but eventually worked a full count. He then singled to right field, scoring Teel to cut the deficit to 2-1. Williams limited the damage in the inning to just the one run.
The right-hander exited after surrendering a leadoff single to Vargas in the sixth. Vargas advanced to second when Murakami grounded out to first against Sabrowski.
Pinch hitter Randal Grichuk walked and the runners moved to second and third when Sabrowski threw a wild pitch with Tommy Pham batting. Pham popped out to shallow left field for the second out.
That brought up Braden Montgomery, who jumped on the first pitch for the two-run opposite-field double to put the Sox ahead 3-2.
“I can’t even describe the energy that was running through me in that moment,” Montgomery said. “First of all, to see the ball get down and to know you’ve got two ducks on the pond that are right there, it’s exhilarating. I was just running with the wind. It was special to touch the bag, look back into the dugout and see my guys.
“It’s a feeling like no other.”
Venable added on Braden Montgomery: “Obviously that’s a huge swing right there. We’ve seen him do that, use the opposite field really well on both sides of the plate. Obviously a huge at-bat to come through there with that double.”
He scored when Meidroth singled to right against Hunter Gaddis, extending the lead to 4-2.
Burke did the heavy lifting for Sox pitchers, allowing one run on one hit with six strikeouts and one walk in 5 1/3 innings.
“I felt pretty good with everything tonight,” Burke said. “The game plan we had coming in as far as how to attack each hitter was good, I was able to execute it for the most part.”
At one point, Burke retired 13 straight.
“It was big-boy stuff,” Venable said of Burke. “It was outstanding.”
Burke exited after surrendering a two-out single to Chase DeLauter. The Sox turned to Grant Taylor, coming off his fantastic four-inning save in Game 1 of the ALDS.
“After catch play today, I felt really good,” Taylor said. “Told them I would be available for one. Was in there for 1 1/3 today.”
He surrendered a run-scoring triple to Jo Adell high off the wall in left-center in the eighth to make it a 4-3 game. But he rebounded in the ninth, aided by a tremendous catch at the wall in left-center by center fielder Brenton Doyle to end the game.
“You hold your breath a little and you look down and you see it’s Brenton Doyle and you realize that if there’s anyone that’s got a chance at helping us, it’s going to be him,” Braden Montgomery said.
The catch secured the victory as the Sox head back home with a chance to close out the series.
“Regardless of how this went here, really excited to be able to give playoff baseball to our fans,” Venable said. “And speaking of our fans, being in an environment like this and having fans here who we could hear and give us energy was really special for our guys.
“They really have responded all year to fans, certainly on the road, and we know how special the fans are at home as well.”