The White Sox snagged a wild 4-3 victory over the Guardians on Monday, punching their ticket to a commanding 2-0 ALDS lead, but it was rookie Braden Montgomery who pulled off the most improbable heroics in Cleveland, completely flipping the script against all odds.
The High-Stakes Chess Match in Cleveland
Man, you gotta love October baseball, right? Managers Stephen Vogt and Will Venable were in full-on chess mode during the top of the sixth inning of ALDS Game 2. Cleveland’s right-handed starter, Gavin Williams, was dealing, having fanned 11 through five frames, and had his team up 2-1. But things got squirrely fast. Williams faced Chicago’s top righty bat, Miguel Vargas, who promptly singled, putting a runner on and sending Williams to the showers. In came lefty reliever Erik Sabrowski, who did his job against the dangerous left-handed slugger Munetaka Murakami, coaxing a groundout that moved Vargas to second. But then Venable fired back with his own veteran righty pinch-hitters: Randal Grichuk walked, and then a wild pitch from Sabrowski put runners on second and third. Tommy Pham flew out, and suddenly, the stage was set, two runners in scoring position, two outs.
The Numbers Said No Way, But Montgomery Said “Watch This!”
This is where it gets crazy, folks. Up stepped Braden Montgomery, the 23-year-old switch-hitting rookie. From the outside, his ability to bat right-handed against the lefty Sabrowski seemed like a good move. But if you knew the numbers, you were sweating. Montgomery’s right-handed production had been a major weakness his whole career, and in the majors this season, it was exposed big time. He was hitting a dismal .129/.204/.226 across 103 right-handed plate appearances. That’s a .430 OPS, which ranked 169th among 169 righty batters who had at least 100 plate appearances against left-handed pitching. Oh, and Sabrowski? He was a righty-killer. Only Josh Hader, Jacob Latz, and Blake Snell held right-handed bats to a lower OPS than Sabrowski’s .510 during the regular season. So, on paper, this at-bat was a disaster waiting to happen for Chicago.
But Montgomery wasn’t playing on paper. “Be ready to compete,” he said afterward, talking about his mindset. “That’s the goal at the end of the day because numbers are what they are. It’s the past, and so you use those experiences to sculpt what you believe to be the best way forward.” And sculpt he did. He absolutely annihilated a first-pitch fastball, sending it screaming off his bat at 101.4 mph. The ball sizzled into right field, landing just inside the foul line. Vargas and Grichuk scored easily, and Montgomery coasted into second. “To see the ball get down and to know you’ve got two ducks on the pond…it’s exhilarating,” Montgomery said. “I was just running with the wind. It was special to touch the bag and look back into the dugout to see my guys.” You can almost feel the roar, right?
What This Means: The White Sox Are Rolling
That one swing from Montgomery totally flushed all his statistical priors and flipped the script of ALDS Game 2. The math said that inning should’ve been over, probably with Chicago still trailing. Instead, the scoreboard screamed 3-2 White Sox, thanks to the rookie’s heroics. They went on to seal a 4-3 victory, putting them in an incredible position, up 2-0 in the ALDS. Momentum is a powerful thing in October, and right now, the White Sox have all of it. Guardians fans are probably still trying to figure out what just happened, but Chicago is celebrating a gritty, improbable win that showed why you play the game, no matter what the numbers say. Now, it’s all about keeping that foot on the gas and bringing that energy home.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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