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 on Monday, and both could reach 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 jumped out to a 2-0 lead against a self-defeating Yankees team. New York committed five errors, three of them in the first game. 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’s what stood out from Day 3 of the MLB Division Series:
The greatest moment
The White Sox trailed for the first time all postseason, and rookie Braden Montgomery and second baseman Chase Meidroth turned the game into a run.
Chicago had led for 24 of the first 27 postseason games before Cleveland scored twice in the first against Anthony Kay and Sean Newcomb. But Guardians starter Gavin Williams, who struck out 11 in five overs, couldn’t hold on to the lead in the sixth.
Miguel Vargas led off with a single, Munetaka Murakami led off with a grounder and pinch hitter Randal Grichuk walked. A wild pitch got both runners on base, and Cleveland reliever Erik Sabrowski was one out before Montgomery hit an opposite-field double to give the Sox a 3-2 lead. Meidroth followed with an RBI single by Hunter Gaddis, and the White Sox held on for a 4-3 victory.
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 Game 4 on Thursday, would send the White Sox to the ALCS for the first time since their 2005 championship run.
The best striker
Junior Caminero made the Yankees pay for the way they handled him in Game 1.
The Rays third baseman, who hit 42 homers this season and will likely finish atop AL MVP voting, homered in the series opener. On Monday, he hit a leadoff double off Cam Schlittler in the fifth inning after Jonathan Aranda’s leadoff single, then scored the game’s third run on a foul ball by Yankees shortstop George Lombard Jr.
Caminero also came up short in the first inning, a play that produced the game’s first run when Jazz Chisholm Jr. made a mistake 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 going back to the Bronx.
The 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 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)
Peralta has a 0.79 ERA since Aug. 26, the lowest in baseball during that span, 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 Rays’ second homer of the night after Bryan Baker closed it out in the ninth.
What’s next
The streak continues with NLDS Game 3s on Tuesday and ALDS Game 3s on Wednesday. Here’s how it will play out:
- Tuesday, October 6: Dodgers at Braves (Game 3), 6:00 PM ET on FOX. The series is tied 1-1.
- Tuesday, October 6: Brewers at Padres (Game 3), 9:30 PM ET on FS1. The Brewers lead the series 2-0.
- Wednesday, Oct. 7: Rangers 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.
